Contact information
Websites
- FMRIB Physics Research
- FMRIB Analysis Research
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Oxford-Nottingham Biomedical Imaging (ONBI)
Centre for Doctoral Training
Research groups
Amy Howard
Postdoctoral Researcher
Combining diffusion MRI and microscopy to probe tissue microstructure
What can we learn from highly detailed microscopy images that can help us infer brain connectivity in vivo? My research considers different ways in which we can combine complementary data from both microscopy and diffusion MRI, to both validate and drive biophysical modelling of the brain tissue microstructure.
Recently, our focus has been on collecting an extensive dataset, the BigMac dataset, which combines in vivo MRI, extensive postmortem MRI and microscopy (polarised light imaging and histology) data from the same, single brain. This dataset provides an open access platform to interconnect microstructural features with MR signals throughout the brain. More details can be found in this manuscript detailing the first release of the data.
At FMRIB, my research spans both the physics and analysis groups and is co-supervised by Profs Karla Miller & Saad Jbabdi.
Interests include:
- In vivo & postmortem MRI
- Diffusion MRI connectivity & microstructure imaging
- Biophysical modelling & model validation
- Light microscopy: polarised light imaging & histological staining
- Quantitative analysis of histology (structure tensor analysis & cell segmentation)
- MRI-microscopy co-registration
- Data fusion / joint analysis of MRI and microscopy (e.g. hybrid tractography)
- Open data
Key publications
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An open resource combining multi-contrast MRI and microscopy in the macaque brain.
Howard AFD. et al, (2023), Nat Commun, 14
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Estimating axial diffusivity in the NODDI model.
Howard AF. et al, (2022), Neuroimage, 262
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An automated pipeline for extracting histological stain area fraction for voxelwise quantitative MRI-histology comparisons.
Kor DZL. et al, (2022), Neuroimage, 264
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Post mortem mapping of connectional anatomy for the validation of diffusion MRI.
Yendiki A. et al, (2022), Neuroimage, 256
Recent publications
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Linking microscopy to diffusion MRI with degenerate biophysical models: an application of the Bayesian EstimatioN of CHange (BENCH) framework
Kor DZL. et al, (2024)
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Imaging the structural connectome with hybrid diffusion MRI-microscopy tractography
Zhu S. et al, (2024)
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Hippocampal connectivity patterns echo macroscale cortical evolution in the primate brain
Eichert N. et al, (2023)
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An open resource combining multi-contrast MRI and microscopy in the macaque brain.
Howard AFD. et al, (2023), Nat Commun, 14
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Why every lab needs a handbook.
Tendler BC. et al, (2023), Elife, 12