DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Since its first demonstration as an imaging agent in MRI nearly a decade ago, the promise of hyperpolarized xenon has captured the attention of the research community. It can be introduced into a subject non-invasively by breathing, and has a well-understood… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): While obstructive lung disease is the fourth leading cause of death in the US, high-resolution non-invasive functional assessment of lungs is lagging behind imaging of other vital organs. Emphysema is characterized by a sudden irreversible decay of lung tissue,… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hyperpolarized xenon MRI has been demonstrated to have exquisite sensitivity in functional imaging of lungs, likely the most technically promising and commercially viable technique. Production of high quality hyperpolar ized xenon has proven challenging. Three… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hyperpolarized gas MRI offers unprecedented pulmonary functional diagnostic capability. Pharmaceutical companies require sensitive diagnostic end points to determine the efficacy of COPD therapies they have under devel opment and accelerate their progress… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hyperpolarized xenon and helium have both demonstrated utility in functional lung imaging and quantifying lung disease. Hyperpolarized xenon offers advantages of a low diffusion constant and availability from natural so urces. It also has applications in… More

In the preparation of neutron beams, used at DOE facilities for materials research, polarized 3He offers over three orders of magnitude difference between the ortho and para spin states in its absorption cross section for epithermal neutrons. Cells of polarized 3He are favored in many experiments… More

Nuclear physics experiments conducted at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility utilize targets consisting of nuclear polarized 3He. These experiments utilize the high energy electron beam for months at a time to answer fundamental questions of how matter is composed of quarks. Over… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite the high mortality and morbidity of lung diseases, they are frequently difficult to diagnose and phenotype, especially in the early, potentially better treatable stages. For childhood lung disease, the case bec omes even more compelling because the… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hyperpolarized xenon-129 (HXe) MRI has been demonstrated to have exquisite sensitivity for functional diagnostic imaging of lungs, likely the most technically promising and commercially viable technique. Full characteri zation of pulmonary health may benefit from… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hyperpolarized gas MRI offers unprecedented pulmonary functional diagnostic capability. Individual sufferers of COPD could benefit from improved diagnosis and treatment management, while pharmaceutical companies could h ave more precise measures of the efficacies… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): While Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is the fourth leading cause of death in the US and affects 30 million Americans, high-resolution non-invasive image-based assessment of lung health is lagging behind im aging of the other vital organs. The… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), including emphysema and chronic bronchitis, is the fourth leading cause of death in the US, accounting for 120,000 fatalities annually. It is the only leading cause of death with rising mortality, with death rate… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Pulmonary medicine is facing a broad spectrum of unmet clinical needs, mainly for three reasons: (1) Lack of regional and quantitative information about lung function especially in obstructive disease; (2) Lack of a rad iation-free diagnostic modality in… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): New therapies are in development for COPD (endobronchial valves/stents/glue) and asthma (endobronchial thermal ablation). Hyperpolarized xenon-129 (HXe) MRI, a noninvasive method to assess regional lung structure and function, may prove critical in the guidance… More

Wide angle neutron analyzers require large volumes of polarized 3He gas that must maintain very high polarization. As these instruments have increased in size, they have outstripped 3He polarization capacity, shortening the run times and adversely affecting. A very high productivity source of… More

The 12 GeV upgrade to the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility at Jefferson Lab will open a new program of nuclear physics experiments, some of which will be conducted with a polarized 3He target. The proposed developments will enable pressurizing polarized 3He from an external large-scale… More

The United States and several other countries are investing in new neutron scattering facilities as well as upgrading existing ones due to their promise for fundamental and applied research that can catalyze advances in energy, telecommunications, manufacturing, plastics, transportation,… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): New clinical guidelines for the treatment of exacerbations in cystic fibrosis (CF) were recently published by the American Thoracic Society. Examples of these evidence-based recommendations include not performing synergy testing to combat multi-drug-resistant… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Assessment of lung function in neonates and infants Lung disease is the most common chronic disease of childhood, but methods for assessing lung disease such as spirometry cannot be performed by young children. Thus clinicians have only parental reports of… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Roughly one million Americans with inadequately controlled severe persistent asthma have a particularly high risk of exacerbations, hospitalizations, and death, and account for a per-patient health care burden exceeding12,000 annually. Bronchial thermoplasty (BT)… More