Two high-level La Jolla research and educational institutions have come together to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to create a new Internet-based visualized database of fishes.
Researchers from the University of California, San Diego’s (UCSD) Keck Center for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have been awarded a National Science Foundation grant for this project.
Basically, the same MRI healthcare technology used as a diagnostic tool on humans is being used to image the marine biology. The images are scanned and stored and anyone with Internet access will be able to see the fishes as never before.
The images, some of rare species from the planet’s oceans, are preserved in high-resolution, three-dimensional format at www.digitalfishlibrary.org. Much of the collection’s initial species were taken from Scripps’ Marine Vertebrate Collection, one of the world’s largest and most valuable collections of preserved fish specimens.
The project provides a new way to present information about fishes and makes information about them available to a wider audience.
The project’s director is Lawrence Frank, Ph.D., a professor of radiology at the UCSD School of Medicine who also leads the biomedical applications program at the Keck fMRI Center.
“The project will further push development of MRI technology for unique applications in humans as well as other species,” Frank said. “It takes a cutting-edge role in imaging and computer technologies. It increases our access to information about not only marine biology, but biodiversity and global ecology as well.”
The project, which will take about five years, has received a $2.5 million grant. It will use the MRI images along with data analysis and visualization methods to present 3-D images of physiological structures.
An early candidate for the MRI catalog was a baby great white shark that was about four feet in length.
“Most MRI machines are cylindrical and we can send fish through it, then scan and finally get the image up to the Web site,” Frank said. “It is a great collaboration between Scripps, UCSD and Keck. This project brings it all together ” for example, high school students who want to look into this type of research.”
The site will feature two classes of data; the first accessible by the general Internet-using public, and the other with site registration, user name and login.
Species that will enter the database will be taken from the vast Scripps collection along with donations from outside parties. The main idea is to image the internal makeup of the entire range of fishes.
Additional MRI scanning cylinders are being designed to fit various smaller sizes of fish. The better the fish fits inside the cylinder at scan time, the clearer the image.
The images are being taken in extremely high resolution. A few quick images are taken and finally a high-resolution image is run, often taking up to 30 minutes to complete.
There are 5,500 species in the Scripps collection and about 27,000 total on earth.
“By creating the Digital Fish Library, we hope to develop a tool that stimulates students to think independently and naturally leads them into questions that they might want to investigate,” Frank said. “We hope to have a model that motivates students’ interests and helps teach them how to conduct research.”
The digital collection will not replace the actual physical collection of specimens. Thus, the new grant is focused specifically on digital imaging and will not go toward helping to fund the Marine Vertebrate Collection, which has been hampered in recent years due to budget concerns.
In addition to Frank, also instrumental in developing this project are Philip Hastings, Ph.D., professor and curator of the Scripps Marine Vertebrate Collection; Cheryl Peach, Ph.D., an expert in science education with Scripps Birch Aquarium; and Cameron Perry with the UCSD Center for fMRI, who is conducting much of the Web development and performs MR imaging.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography is on the Web at www.scripps.ucsd.edu, or Scripps news can be found at www.scrippsnews.ucsd.edu.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD is one of the oldest and largest centers for global science research and graduate training in the world.
For more information about fMRI, visit http://cfmri.ucsd.edu/.
