Microscopic diffusion anisotropy imaging

Daniel Alexander (primary)
Computer Science
University College London
Chris Clark (secondary)
Child Health
University College London

Abstract

The microstructure of brain tissue is critical to neural function and health. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive technique for the assessment of microstructural features and therefore offers untapped potential to study both brain development and neurodevelopmental disorders in preclinical setting and living humans. The aim of this project is to pioneer advanced MRI techniques enabling to monitor the microscopic progression of nervous tissue structure in vivo. Specifically, we will exploit the diffusion process of water molecules as a fingerprint to recover tissue microstructure using the latest MRI technology, computational modelling and machine-learning methods.


References

  1. Jones DK (ed): Diffusion MRI: Theory, Methods, and Applications, Oxford, 2011.
  2. Johansen-Berg H and Behrens TEJ (eds): Diffusion MRI: From Quantitative Measurement to In-vivo Neuroanatomy (2nd Edition), Elsevier, 2014.
  3. Kaden E, Kruggel F and Alexander DC: Quantitative mapping of the per-axon diffusion coefficients in brain white matter. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 75:1752–1763, 2016.
  4. Kaden E, Kelm ND, Carson RP, Does MD and Alexander DC: Multi-compartment microscopic diffusion imaging. NeuroImage 139:346–359, 2016.
  5. LeCun Y, Bengio Y, Hinton G: Deep learning. Nature 521:436–444, 2015.

BBSRC Area
Genes, development and STEM* approaches to biology
Area of Biology
DevelopmentNeurobiology
Techniques & Approaches
EngineeringImage ProcessingSimulation / Modelling