| Laboratory of Clinical Investigation |
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| Richard G.S. Spencer, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.P. Senior Investigator, Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Section |
 Richard Spencer obtained his Ph.D. in Medical Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1987, working with Professor Joanne Ingwall at the NMR Laboratory for Physiological Chemistry of Harvard Medical School, and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1988. He was a postdoctoral fellow with Professor Robert Griffin at the Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory of MIT before joining the NIH. Dr. Spencer joined the National Institute on Aging in 1991, as Chief of the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Unit. He completed medical residency training at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland. Research Interests: The Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Section (MRISS) performs biophysical and physiological studies on human subjects, experimental animals, and tissue and cellular preparations. Current research includes imaging studies of engineered cartilage tissue, with particular emphasis on correlates between NMR-derived parameters such as matrix fixed charge, magnetization transfer, and local diffusion coefficient, tissue biomechanics, and tissue biochemistry. The response of engineered cartilage to a variety of growth conditions and pharmacologic interventions may be assessed in detail using our methods. We have also initiated studies of cartilage defects in small animals with the goal of investigating biological interventions. |
| Further work concerns spectroscopic studies of muscle metabolism under a variety of pharmacologic and physiologic conditions. Recent work has emphasized the bioenergetics of peripheral artery disease, including the effects of gene therapy with adenoviruses expressing vascular endothelial growth factor on acute hindlimb ischemia in the rat. We are also looking at adrenergic stimulation of the isolated perfused rat heart, with the goal of defining the bioenergetic correlates and patterns of substrate utilization of b-1 and b-2 agonists. In addition, we continue to actively develop and apply novel noninvasive NMR methods for measuring enzymatic fluxes related to energy provision in the peripheral muscle of animals, as well as in normatively aging humans. The section instrumentation consists of a double-resonance Bruker ABX 1.9T/31 cm Biospec with shielded gradients, and a triple-resonance wide-bore Bruker DMX 400 with microimaging and solids capability. |
| Contact Information: Laboratory of Clinical Investigation Gerontology Research Center 5600 Nathan Shock Drive Baltimore, MD 21224-6825 Phone 410-558-8226 Fax 410-558-8318 E mail spencer@helix.nih.gov For more information about the Laboratory: http://www.grc.nia.nih.gov/branches/lci/nmr/nmr.htm |
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