FMRIB Collaborations

We benefit greatly from the excellent academic environment and support of Oxford University, and the clinical environment of the NHS. Imaging is a platform technology for Medicine at Oxford, in which FMRIB is seen as the focal point for human neuroimaging within the University, supporting a substantial amount of complementary research from other departments, as well as training their graduates and postdoctoral staff. Current collaborating Departments include: Clinical¹; Pre-Clinical/Basic Science²; Cross-Divisional³. The areas of research covered by senior collaborative investigators within these departments include: Vision (A. Parker, H. Bridge, O. Braddick, A. Cowey); Psychiatric disease (G. Goodwin, P. Cowen, R. Rogers); Emotion (E. Rolls); Attention (K. Nobre); Neurosurgery (T. Aziz and J. Stein); Neuropathology (M. Esiri, S. Chance); Language and Language Development (K. Watkins and D.Bishop); Image Analysis (M. Brady, B. Ripley, J. Marchini and D. Gavaghan); Stroke (A. Buchan, J. Kennedy, P. Rothwell, D. Wade, U. Kischka); Multiple Sclerosis (J. Palace, M. Esiri); Vascular Disease (R. Choudhury); MR Physics (M. Robson, J. Schneider).

The close association between FMRIB and Stefan Neubauer’s cardiovascular MRI group in the Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research (OCMR) has led to several collaborative projects and us working together to hopefully obtain a 7 Tesla MR whole-body system that can be used for both neuro and cardiac applications research. The OCMR facility provides excellent access to additional MR systems from which data is generated for several FMRIB research projects. Within the NHS, Oxford’s successful bid to become a Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre in the recent NIHR call includes FMRIB as a major resource, within both the Imaging and Neurosciences Themes. Work at FMRIB also feeds directly into the recently awarded Acute Vascular Imaging Centre (PI: A. Buchan), where MRI will be used as a gold standard measure of acute stroke and cardiac injury.

Beyond the UK we have several strong international and industrial collaborations. A few examples include:

• Princeton (DTI imaging in the brain)
• MGH, Boston (morphometric analysis of brain structure and 7T physics)
• Stanford and NYU (functional mapping of visual cortex)
• MAGNIMS Consortium (7 European centres collaborating on imaging in Multiple Sclerosis),
• NIH/Italy (developing spinal cord imaging)
• Merck, Pfizer and GSK (pharmacological and pain imaging).

¹ Clinical Neurology, Psychiatry, Pain Relief Unit, Nuffield Department Surgery (Orthopaedic and Neurosurgery), Nuffield Dept of Medicine, Cardiovascular Medicine, Rheumatology, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Gynaecology, Gastroenterology, Anaesthetics, Oxford Centre for Enablement, Urology

² Experimental Psychology, Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, Pharmacology

³ Engineering, Statistics, Physics, Chemistry