Year 1

We have made good progress in the first year. This project involves four separate scientific teams, brought together for the first time, representing diverse backgrounds ranging from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) physics and cell tracking (Dr. Rutt), microbiology (Dr. Matin), nano and magnetic characterization (Dr. Moler) and stem cell imaging in stroke models (Dr. Guzman). Substantial progress has been made by all four teams, and we are starting to see important interactions between the teams. An overall summary of progress is that we have evaluated three different bacterial genes (magA, mms6, mamB) in one mammalian cell line (MDA-MB-231BR) and have shown significant iron accumulation in vitro with two of these genes, which is a very positive result implying that these genes may have the required characteristics to act as “reporter genes” for MRI-based tracking of cells labeled with these genes. MR imaging of mouse brain specimens has yielded promising results and in vivo imaging experiments are underway at medium MRI field strength (3 Tesla). At the same time, we are ramping up our higher field, higher sensitivity MR imaging methods and will be ready to evaluate the different variations of our MR reporter gene at 7 Tesla (the highest magnetic field widely available for human MRI) in the near future. Finally, methods to perform quantitative characterization of our reporter cells are being developed, with the goal of being able to characterize magnetic properties down to the single cell level, and also to be able to assess iron loading levels down to the single level in brain tissue slices.