Purdue, Community Officials Celebrate Opening of New MRI Center

Business Wire, Nov 8, 2007

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- The LakeView Technology Center, a building that will provide space for a high-powered magnetic resonance imaging facility, was dedicated at the Purdue Research Park.

The 7,800-square-foot MRI center, called InnerVision West, provides a 3-Tesla MRI scanner that offers enhanced resolution over conventional 1.5-Tesla MRI scanners.

The MRI center is a partnership among Purdue University, Purdue Research Foundation, St. Elizabeth Regional Health, Unity Health Care and GE Healthcare.

"This new building is located in the Purdue Research Park's Phase II development," said Joseph B. Hornett, senior vice president, treasurer and chief operating officer of the Purdue Research Foundation, which owns and operates the research park. "This dedication continues the positive expansion of the park and meets our mission in building economic development for the area and state."

Magnetic resonance imaging is a method that allows physicians to "see" internal tissues. The magnetic field in an MRI system is rated using a unit of measure known as Tesla or "T." Three Tesla (3T) is equivalent to 60,000 times the Earth's magnetic field.

Some of the procedures that the 3-T MRI system will benefit include magnetic resonance angiography; neurological/brain imaging; spine studies; orthopedic; prostate; pelvis; abdominal; spectroscopy; brain fiber tracking; and functional neuroimaging.

"The exciting part of this project is the extraordinary potential for this MR scanner," said Terry Wilson, president and CEO of St. Elizabeth Regional Health.

The 26,000-square-foot LakeView Technology also will house Simulex Inc., a company established in 1999 by Alok Chaturvedi, a Purdue professor of management and CEO of the company.

Simulex, which is located in the Purdue Research Park, provides fully functioning synthetic environments that enable government and business customers to gain insights into complex situations. The technology, called Synthetic Environments for Analysis and Simulation (SEAS), was developed at Purdue. The technology has been used by the U.S. Joint Forces Command, Naval Air Command, U.S. Army Recruiting Command and Fortune 500 companies for analysis, planning and training.

Simulex currently has 35 employees and has offices in the Purdue Research Park, San Francisco, Atlanta and Norfolk, Va., as well as a subsidiary in India.