Analysis Large Collaborative Projects

HUMAN CONNECTOME PROJECT

We are a major partner in the $30m NIH Human Connectome Project - this is comprehensively mapping human brain circuitry in 1,200 healthy adults using cutting-edge methods of noninvasive neuroimaging. The HCP image analysis pipeline is primarily being built around FSL and FreeSurfer, and we are carrying out a lot of new research for improved tools for FMRI and diffusion MRI analysis as part of the HCP.

DEVELOPING HUMAN CONNECTOME PROJECT

We are a major partner in the €15m EU-funded Developing Human Connectome Project, a collaboration between Kings, FMRIB and Imperial. The dHCP is comprehensively mapping human brain circuitry in 1000 babies (in utero and in vivo, from 20 to 44 weeks post-conceptional age), using cutting-edge methods of noninvasive neuroimaging.

UK BIOBANK IMAGING    

UK Biobank is a long-term prospective epidemiological study that has already collected genetics, blood samples, lifestyle information and other data from a cohort of 500,000 subjects, to be followed clinically over coming decades. The UK Biobank Imaging Extension, which aims to bring back 100,000 of the cohort for multimodal neuroimaging and cardiac MRI (amongst other measures), has just completed phase 1 (5,000 subjects). This will be by far the largest neuro/cardiac imaging study carried out to date, and will add very rich phenotyping to the overall Biobank project. Funded primarily by the MRC and Wellcome Trust, the initial phase involved imaging several thousand subjects in a new, dedicated imaging centre, which, if shown to be successful, will then expand into the full £36m imaging project, with two further dedicated imaging centres setup at other sites across the UK. FMRIB (Smith, Miller) is leading the neuroimaging - determining the imaging hardware setup, imaging protocols and post-processing pipeline, in consultation with the wider imaging community.