BioPAL provides MRI products to the biomedical research community.  Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a method of obtaining images of the body in thin slices.  It measures the characteristics of hydrogen nuclei of water and nuclei with similar chemical shifts, modified by the chemical environment across the slice.  This is a major difference of MRI from NMR spectroscopy.  The latter measures the characteristics of any hydrogen nuclei depending on their position in the molecule.  Instead of obtaining information about chemical shifts and coupling constants, MRI gives spatial distribution of the intensity of water proton signal in the volume of the body.  This signal intensity depends on the amount of water in the given place and on the magnetic relaxation time T1 and T2 which in turn are influenced by a range of factors.  Deducing these factors in each case is the ultimate goal of the radiologist or research scientist evaluating the resulting image.

Spin-lattice relaxation time T1 and spin-spin relaxation time T2 may be shortened considerably in presence of paramagnetic species.  While shortening of T1 leads to an increase in signal intensity (a bright spot), shortening of T2 produces broader lines with decreased intensity (a dark spot).  The net result is a nonlinear relationship between signal intensity and the concentration of the contrast agent.  BioPAL offers a wide range of gadolinium-based (T1 imaging agent) and iron-based (T2 imaging agent) contrast reagents to the life-science community.  BioPAL is a leading provider of novel MRI contrast reagents directed toward the needs of the life science community.