PNNL scientists designed the highly detailed virtual respiratory tract by combining the powerful capabilities of supercomputers, rapid semi-automated computer modeling and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging systems. The equipment is located in the William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE user facility located at PNNL.
Creation of PNNLs virtual respiratory tract began in the nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer facility, which contains instruments capable of producing magnetic resonance images similar to those used in diagnostic medicine - but characterized by much higher spatial resolution.
With the NMR technology, laboratory scientists captured images of a rats upper respiratory tract and lungs in unprecedented detail. Then, a semi-automated software package called NWGrid analyzed the data, reconstructed it into a computer model and integrated information to show how airflows carrying particles might move inside the imaged respiratory tract during breathing.
The grid program allows us to translate raw NMR data into a computer image very quickly, said Harold Trease, PNNL computational physicist. We can go from data sets to a working model in hours compared with weeks or months required by other approaches. This increased speed will allow us to replicate the studies many times over, which will give us greater precision, or to broaden our studies and create a database of information on healthy and diseased lungs.
The laboratorys Biomolecular Networks Initiative http://www.biomolecular.org has supported development of the virtual respiratory tract with about $400,0
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Contact: Staci Maloof
staci.maloof@pnl.gov
509-372-6313
DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
27-Sep-2001