Here is a company that would have gone bankrupt without this NIH grant
this should make people sick. since they are already in the MRI business it would be part of their life cycle management to improve their products. why should a behemoth like GE get a grant like this. They probably filed for the grant to keep it away from a small company that actually could have used the money.
GE gets NIH grant to build a better MRI magnet
Wed, Jan 27 2010
* Plan is to make smaller, easier-to-maintain machines
* Team plans to use newly discovered superconducting wire
By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Researchers at General Electric Co <GE.N> won a $3.27 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a better magnet for MRI machines that will make them cheaper and easier to use in underdeveloped nations, the company said on Wednesday.
The aim is to make an electromagnetic coil that will deliver the same quality of images produced on current magnetic resonance imaging or MRI machines without the need to be kept at ultra-cool temperatures.
The need for a large vessel of liquid helium inside the machines for cooling is one reason MRI machines are so big and costly.
Kathleen Amm, lab manager at GE Global Research in Niskayuna, New York, said her team aims to eliminate the need for liquid helium. To do that, they plan to replace the coils of niobium-titanium superconducting wire used in its current magnets with magnesium diboride, a new superconductor discovered in 2001.
Amm would not say exactly what the company will use to keep the system cool, but she said, "It's a lot easier to deal with."
The company's GE Healthcare unit is a key player in the estimated $5.5 billion MRI equipment market, along with Siemens Medical Solutions <SIEGn.DE> and Philips <PHG.AS>.
Amm said GE is working on the project now in anticipation of future shortages of liquid helium, a limited resource that comes from natural gas wells.
Getting rid of the liquid helium will allow the group to build smaller MRI machines, and allow the company to place the machine in underdeveloped countries that have limited access to liquid helium. All that will be needed is electricity.
Minfeng Xu, a researcher in Amm's lab who is heading up the project, said the new niobium-titanium superconductor will likely be cheaper because the raw materials cost will be less.
The group is starting on a four-year research project that will culminate in a prototype magnet.
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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