The College of Engineering held a dedication ceremony this summer for the three-story, $21 million, 45,000-square-foot MRI Research Center that houses 7 Tesla and 3 Tesla scanners — two of the most powerful research and clinical scanners in the world. Both scanners are housed on the first floor of the facility, which was completed in September 2010. The second floor includes office space for Auburn faculty and staff, as well as clinical offices for local orthopedic surgeons and a distance-enabled classroom and conference room.

The third floor houses East Alabama Medical Center’s RehabWorks, an outpatient physical therapy facility, and clinics for the U.S. Army Warrior Research Center and Auburn’s Department of Kinesiology. Surgeon Lee Warren operates a clinic on the third floor that specializes in minimally-invasive back and neck pain management, brain tumors and neurological disorders.

Auburn researchers have also collaborated with partners at the University of Alabama–Birmingham to hold an inaugural brain imaging retreat sponsored jointly by the Auburn University MRI Research Center and the UAB Comprehensive Neuroscience Center. The invitation-only retreat included presentations on laboratories and collaborative projects between the universities, including MRI spectroscopy and structural MRI at 7-Tesla.

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