Poster: http://www.physics.uwo.ca/colloquia/Colloquia%20Notices/2011_2012/McNAB%20Research%20Talk.pdf
Western University
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY COLLOQUIUM
Date: Wednesday, 7th March 2012
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Location: Physics & Astronomy Seminar Room 22
Dr. Jennifer McNab
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging
Harvard Medical School
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
“Developing Biomarkers of Neuroplasticity Using Diffusion MRI”
ABSTRACT
The human brain has a tremendous ability to adapt and compensate for injury. My research is centred on the development of non-invasive biomarkers of specific neuroplastic features implicated in the recovery process including: axonal branching, changing cortical cellular composition and changing axon diameter distributions. My approach is to map these non-invasive biomarkers using advanced diffusion MRI techniques that leverage recent advances in human MRI technology including 7x stronger encoding gradients, improved detectors and advanced diffusion acquisition and modeling techniques. For patients recovering from a brain injury (e.g. traumatic brain injury or stroke), biomarkers are needed in order to advance and refine neurorestorative treatments, to stratify patients in clinical trials and to guide individualized patient care.
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