Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Facility

The internationally renowned Western Sydney University, Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Facility (BMRF) specialises in assisting researchers, students and industry with a variety of magnetic resonance-based biological, chemical and medical analyses.

  • The facility offers fee for service work or training on the instruments for external users. The exact cost depends on the nature of the work (e.g., collaborative or non-collaborative; commercial or academic), and the experiments (e.g., sample preparation requirements, instrument) and analysis required.
  • The BMRF is capable of conducting all standard contemporary nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments as well as more specialised NMR experiments and imaging.
  • Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), NMR diffusion measurements, suppression experiments and contrast agent development are particular specialities.
  • The BMRF also has high-level expertise for analysing the resulting data.
  • The BMRF is a node of the National Imaging Facility (NIF).(opens in a new window)
  • The BMRF is situated on the Campbelltown Campus in Building 17.

STELAR Fast Field Cycling Relaxometer (0 – 1 T) and Variable Field Relaxometer (up to 3 T)

  • This is the first instrument of its kind in Australia
  Many of the most important chemical processes involve the slow dynamics of molecules that occur in the range between nanoseconds and milliseconds. This includes a diverse range of phenomena from clinical to industrial importance such as MRI contrast and the development of new MRI contrast agents, to the durability of concrete, filtration, catalysis, rock core analysis and even food spoilage. Measuring the “relaxation” time of a molecule as a function of field strength is a particularly powerful means for probing slow molecular dynamics.
BRUKER AVANCE III 600 MHz Wide Bore NMR/MRI Spectrometer (14.1 T)  Equipped with high field XYZ gradient amplifiers capable of generating up to 3000 G/cm. It is equipped with various probes and accessories that enable it to be used for a wide range of NMR experiments such as heteronuclear NMR, diffusion, micro-imaging, and high-resolution protein structure determination.
BRUKER AVANCE II 500 MHz Wide Bore NMR/MRI Spectrometer (11.7 T)  Equipped with high field XYZ gradient amplifiers capable of generating up to 3000 G/cm. It is equipped with various probes and accessories that enable it to be used for a wide range of NMR experiments such as heteronuclear NMR, diffusion, micro-imaging, and high-resolution protein structure determination.
BRUKER AVANCE 400 MHz NMR Spectrometer (9.4 T)  Equipped with gradients up to ~55 G/cm. Suited for heteronuclear NMR studies and for diffusion studies of small molecules to moderately sized polymers. The 400 MHz Spectrometer is also equipped with an automatic sample changer for automated use.
VARIAN MERCURY 300 MHz NMR Spectrometer (7.0 T)  Equipped with a 4-nuclei inverse probe with z-axis gradients. The probe was specially modified to simultaneously tune to four nuclei namely 1H, 19F, 13C and 31P. Suited for routine 1D and 2D NMR experiments.
MAGRITEK SPINSOLVE Benchtop NMR (1 T)  Equipped with diffusion gradients and expert software This bench top NMR is useful for simple experiments on proton and fluorine nuclei such as pulse-acquire, relaxation experiments and COSY experiments. It is also suitable for reaction monitoring. Further, the system at the BMRF also contains a gradient for diffusion measurements and the computer is equipped with both the standard software and the expert software. The expert software is useful for more advanced experiments and pulse-programming.
PerkinElmer QUANTUM GX MicroCT  This imaging system provides high-resolution computed tomography images. The Quantum GX can image with a very high resolution (4.5 micrometre voxels). This scanner can image with a wide field of view (FOV) (e.g., 36 mm, 72 mm) allowing it to be used for high resolution imaging of mice, rats and rabbits but it is not limited to animal imaging.
MAGRITEK EARTH FIELD NMR/MRI
(~58 µT, depending on location)		  A simple instrument which can be used for NMR,
 diffusion and imaging experiments. It can also be used for some, 'off the wall', experiments.

Contact Details

For further information regarding using this facility please contact:

Prof. William S. Price
Professor of Medical Imaging Physics | Director and Leader of the Nanoscale Group
Nanoscale Organisation and Dynamics Group | School of Science
Campbelltown Campus - Building 21.G.45
Western Sydney University
Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751
AUSTRALIA
P: +61 2 4620 3336 | M: +61 404 830 398 | E: w.price@westernsydney.edu.au
Click here for more information about Bill (opens in a new window)

Dr Tim Stait-Gardner
National Imaging Facility Fellow
Nanoscale Organisation and Dynamics Group | School of Science
Campbelltown Campus - Building 21.1.33
Western Sydney University
Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751
AUSTRALIA
E-mail: t.stait-gardner@westernsydney.edu.au
Phone: [+61 2] 4620 3216
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Dr Scott A. Willis
Research Manager, Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Facility
Nanoscale Organisation and Dynamics Group | School of Science
Centralised Research Facilities | Research Services
Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Enterprise and International)
Campbelltown Campus - Building 17.G.06
Western Sydney University
Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751
AUSTRALIA
E-mail: Scott.Willis@westernsydney.edu.au
Phone: [+61 2] 4620 3114
Click here for more information about Scott (opens in a new window)