News Archive

The National MagLab was featured on the front page of the National Science Foundation website in February 2023, in recognition of how NSF-funding assists with scientific and economic development in Florida. This article provides access to content generated at the Tallahassee headquarters, so you can "Meet the Magnets" used for scientific research.

Using NMR, researchers determined a molecular model of a protein-polymer conjugate, providing new insights into how polymers can be used to make protein drugs more robust. To observe the protein-polymer conjugates, the research team needed the high magnetic fields and sensitivity provided by 800 MHz NMR instrument with cryogenic probe at the MagLab’s AMRIS Facility.

MRI scans taken after a stroke show brightness around the injury, the origins of which have been a long-standing and vexatious mystery for scientists. This work suggests these MRI signal changes result from fluid changes in glial cell volumes, results that could advance our ability to distinguish reversible and irreversible stroke events or provide a better understanding for other disorders such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and mood or sleep disorders.

MRI scans taken after a stroke show brightness around the injury, the origins of which have been a long-standing and vexatious mystery for scientists. This work suggests these MRI signal changes result from fluid changes in glial cell volumes, results that could advance our ability to distinguish reversible and irreversible stroke events or provide a better understanding for other disorders such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and mood or sleep disorders.

The organic composition of soils in peat wetlands determines if carbon is available to be aerobically converted into carbon dioxide gas as a result of either a warming climate or drainage of wetlands for development. This research demonstrates an explicit link between the oxygen-alkyl groups (i.e., carbohydrates) in the peat and the amount of CO2 production. The solid-state NMR spectrometer used in this research employs a MagLab-designed probe that produces uniform magnetic fields and minimal sample heating, allowing intact soil samples to be analyzed with no further chemical processing or alteration of their sample profile. The first-author student on this paper received an NSF Graduate Fellowship to travel the world to work with Smithsonian and La Trobe scientists to collect the peat samples.

By applying computer vector machine modeling to 45-minute MRI brain scans, UF researchers reported that the algorithm could predict the progression from amnestic mild cognitive impairment to dementia with over 94% accuracy. Furthermore, they reported that the algorithm produced 92.7% accuracy when using a shorter, 10-minute MRI brain scan. These findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, click Learn More to navigate to the publication.

The University of Florida is one of a network of institutions selected to implement the National Institutes of Health’s HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study or HBCD, a longitudinal, multidisciplinary effort to study brain development and behavioral health in young children. The HBCD study, which involves 25 institutions across the country, will enroll thousands of pregnant women and their babies and follow them through early childhood to identify trajectories of brain development. A portion of this study will be performed on the 3T MRI systems at the MagLab's AMRIS Facility inside the McKnight Brain Institute.

An insect's ability to survive anaerobic conditions (without oxygen) during winter pupation occurs through periodic cycling of aerobic respiration pathways needed to recharge energy and clear waste. The cellular mechanisms at play during these brief near-arousal periods can provide clues to help improve the success in storage and transplant of human organs. This research was conducted in the 14.1T equipped with a HTS CryoProbe and Agilent Console at the MagLab's AMRIS Facility located at the University of Florida.

An insect's ability to survive anaerobic conditions (without oxygen) during winter pupation occurs through periodic cycling of aerobic respiration pathways needed to recharge energy and clear waste. The cellular mechanisms at play during these brief near-arousal periods can provide clues to help improve the success in storage and transplant of human organs. This research was conducted in the 14.1T equipped with a HTS CryoProbe and Agilent Console at the MagLab's AMRIS Facility located at the University of Florida.

This event is no longer live/interactive, but videos are still online for you to enjoy! Join the science fun through special MagLab video demonstrations, all access video tours, online games, and activities for audiences of all ages.

Congratulations to our AMRIS-affiliated University of Florida faculty and students Marc McLeod, Rohit Mahar, Clayton E. Mathews, and Matthew E. Merritt, whose research on the effects of "ketogenic" diets on liver metabolism was recently selected as one of the National MagLab's Science Highlights. We have posted a description of the research, intended for a general audience, on the MagLab website. The page also includes more technical descriptions of the research and a link to the original publication. Please feel free to share this feature with your networks, and congratulations on this featured project from UF's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. We are pleased to provide access to the advanced instrumentation needed for your research!