Though construction has finally finished on the enormous glass building that towers above 21st Avenue on the south end of Medical Center North, the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science (IIS) has called the first three floors home since November of 2006. The building, which will now hold IIS in addition to two floors of animal care facilities, a floor for the medical school's gross anatomy class and two floors still up for grabs, was initially built to house a 7 Tesla MRI machine bought by IIS.

"The main reason we moved was because the human 7 Tesla is a gargantuan structure, and there was no place to put it before," said Mark Does, the director of the Center for Small Animal Imaging, located on the third floor of the building. "It is located on the basement level because it is so large that the first floor is really only a half floor because the area above it is unusable."
Does said the move was also necessary to increase the lab and office space of IIS and to bring the faculty under one roof. "Our faculty was spread out over a lot of different locations. The move has localized the faculty and made it a very collaborative environment ... it's very convenient now our offices are right about where the lab is," he said.

The move concentrated all the imaging technology into one place. "We are not developing any new technology; we buy and use state of the art technology to conduct research use the science to answer biological questions," Does said.
Does said the biggest user of the imaging facilities is the Ingram Cancer Center, though other research fields include bone biology, cardio imaging and neuroscience.

"You can go to other places and find the cancer piece, but you won't find the 7 Tesla brain stuff. Or you can go and find the brain stuff, but you won't find the cancer piece," said John Gore, who serves as director of the IIS. "We actually are the most integrated comprehensive program in the country."
The 7 Tesla MRI machine, which uses a magnet to produce high-resolution images, is one of a handful in the world, Does said. An MRI found in a doctor's clinic is typically 1.5 to 3 Tesla. The machine, which cost $7 million, is used in human imaging research and is housed in a 400-ton steel box to shield the magnet. The magnetic pull is so strong a circumference of yellow tape warning visitors of the magnetic line surrounds the door leading to the MRI.

"I think everyone in this building has erased an ID card or a credit card," said Ken Williams, an engineer at the IIS, "So far I have only erased one ID."