Research Profile

The last twenty years have seen a huge leap forward in our understanding of how the human brain works, and forefront in the technologies that have enabled this is the technique of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). My research program involves pushing the technological boundaries of the MRI technique to reveal new insights about how the brain functions normally, and how it is affected by disease.

My introduction to this work came after completing a Physics degree, when I joined the Magnetic Resonance Centre at Nottingham University to study for a PhD. This centre was one of the pioneers in the development of MRI, where Nobel Prize winner, Sir Peter Mansfield, demonstrated that the chemistry technique of NMR could be used to image the human body. The centre was also the first in the country to install a new generation, high performance 3 Tesla MRI system, which I was one of the first to work on. Since the field of fMRI was just starting, much of my work in Nottingham was in the development of the methods for acquiring and analysing fMRI data.

I joined the FMRIB Centre, part of the Department of Clinical Neurology, in Oxford in October 1997 and since then, as well being involved in the development, management and improvements in performance of its 3 Tesla scanner, I have developed a research program in novel methods for imaging the brain in more detail than has been previously possible. Two examples of recent work have been the development of a very quick scan that can be used to get a quantitative measure of tissue integrity in the brain's of patients with MS, and scans that show, in fine detail, the features of the living human cortex that have previously only been visible on microscope slices of post-mortem tissue. This work gives neuroscientists the opportunity to investigate the link between how different regions of the brain function, studied with fMRI, to its underlying cellular structure.

In addition to my research activities, for the past four years I have been head of graduate training in the lab. I have set up a comprehensive lecture, tutorial, practical and assessment program that is attended by over 20 students a year from a wide range of University departments. I also advise prospective students on the applications procedure for studying for a DPhil in our lab and sit on the Department's Graduate Studies committee.