Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

This proposal requests funds to purchase a 24-channel head coil for non-human primate (NHP) neuroimaging, allowing for cutting-edge functional and anatomical studies in NHPs. This device will support the research programs of multiple faculty members at Queens, from early career investigators to well-established, tenured faculty, including: Jason Gallivan (Psychology/Biomedical and Molecular Sciences), Martin Par (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences), Stephen Scott (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences) and Gunnar Blohm (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences / Psychology / Math Stats / School of Computing). The requested device will replace an older, and now faulty and unrepairable, head coil that has been used by all NHP researchers at the Centre for Neuroscience Studies at Queens University since its purchase, back in 2007. This previous head coil was being used by multiple trainees (including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and research associates) in the Gallivan, Par, Scott and Blohm labs, and continued access to a NHP head coil is critical to the success of these ongoing research projects, which form key components of these investigators long term research objectives. A new NHP head coil is also instrumental for the success of new, highly collaborative and already funded research initiatives planned by several of the above investigators, as well as their collaborators (Cook, Levy, Munoz and De Felice). Therefore, failure to replace this unique device in a timely fashion will seriously jeopardize a number of ongoing, and successful, research programs and prevent the launching of several exciting new research programs.