MPRC Magnetic Resonance Center Core (MMRC)

The MPRC Magnetic Resonance Center Core (MMRC) is located on the grounds of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center in Catonsville, MD. The MR scanner is in the imaging center, a 1600 sqf stand-alone building, adjacent to the Tawes Building of the MPRC. The TMS systems are in the Tawes Building.

The mission of the MMRC Core is to advance Magnetic Resonance and TMS research spanning basic science to clinical applications through a collaborative and educational environment. Staff provide consultation on MRI and TMS projects, including experimental design, protocol setup, and data processing. 

Overview of Services

MR Scanner:

• The 3 Telsa Siemens Prismafit MR whole body scanner with high speed gradients (80 mT/m, 200T/m/s) is equipped with a 64-channel head coil, with fMRI task presentation, and MR compatible physiological monitoring suites. Capabilities include functional MRI, diffusion, spectroscopy, perfusion, and structural MRI. Specialized sequences obtained through C2Ps, WIPS, or in house developed are possible. Current examples include connectome imaging, whole brain blood brain barrier (BBB), spectroscopic sequences for detection of neurotransmitters (glutamate, GABA) and bioenergetics (lactate, BHB, glucose).
  
• A mock scanner simulating the MR scanner is available for research participant training. It is equipped with automated bed, sound simulation, task presentation, and mock-ups of the bore and an exact replica of the 64-channel head coil.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS):

• Two TMS systems, Magventure (MagPro^® X100 Magnetic Stimulator with a figure-of-eight B70 active coil and sham coil matched in appearance) for repetitive TMS or theta burst delivery and Magstim BiStim2 (figure-of-eight, 70-mm coils, including an active coil and sham coil matched in appearance) for paired-pulse and single-pulse delivery, are available for research. The Brainsight TMS Navigation system is used for TMS neuronavigation. 

Computer Cluster:

• The High-Performance Computing (HPC) cluster is a computational resource designed to accommodate large-scale, data-intensive workflows common in biomedical research, with particular emphasis on parallel processing and GPU-accelerated analysis. The cluster consists of a dedicated head node and 26 compute nodes, providing approximately 2,000 CPU cores, 377 GB of RAM per node, and NVIDIA Tesla P100 GPUs across all nodes. These resources support a broad range of applications, including image processing, statistical modeling, machine learning, and high-throughput genetic analyses. The infrastructure also includes approximately 1.6 petabytes of RAID-protected storage and a dedicated XNAT server for managing MRI data.
  
• Researchers have access to a diverse collection of software packages commonly used in MRI analysis, genetic data processing, and scientific programming, including FSL, FreeSurfer, AFNI, MATLAB, Python, and R. These tools are pre-installed and maintained by the system

Leadership

• Laura Rowland, Ph.D., Director, lrowland@som.umaryland.edu, 410-402-6826
• Ze Wang, Ph.D., Deputy Director and physicist, ze.wang@som.umaryland.edu, 410-706-2797

Location and hours of operation

Links and Resources

• Maryland Psychiatric Research Center (MPRC)
• University of Maryland Center for Innovative Biomedical Resources (CIBR)

Contacts

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