Scientists at Cardiff University have been awarded nearly £1 million to investigate how imaging technology can help to pick up new signs of disease in the brain.
Using MRI scanner technology optimised for smaller samples, along with advanced microscopes, scientists will analyse the brains of epilepsy patients, initially focusing on individuals with highly localised abnormalities in the structure of the cortex.
Cardiff University will collaborate with Case Western Reserve University, University College London, the University of Leeds and Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, with the MRI scanner technology supplied by Siemens Healthineers.
The Medical Research Council has awarded £990,888 to the Cardiff project as part of £7 million funding allocated to seven UK research projects into complex human diseases.
According to Professor Derek Jones, Director of Cardiff University’s Brain Imaging Research Centre (CUBRIC), this is the first time a “multi-scale” imaging approach has been used to examine the outer layer of the brain in this way. The team hope it will allow them to detect and characterise multiple cortical diseases.
“Using the latest in artificial intelligence techniques, we will track back from a cellular level to whole organ level, with the aim of identifying new MRI tissue fingerprints that could uncover mechanisms of disease that have previously been hidden from view on conventional MRI,” said Professor Jones.
Professor William Gray, a neurosurgeon who is part of the team, commented: “We hope this might help, in future, to better tailor surgery for people with epilepsy – and help more patients to become seizure free.”
