NeuroGrid
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Psychiatry
Abstract
Modern methods for visualising the human brain have revolutionised the treatment of neurological illnesses. Developments in the methods of brain scanning will make similar advances possible in other neuropsychiatric disorders including dementia and psychosis. There are several problems that need to be overcome before these advances can take place. The main challenges are: how to make research studies large enough to identify brain changes reliably; and how to make sure that methods of scanning and analysis are done in compatible ways in all the clinical sites.
New developments in information technology ? called e-Science ? provide the means for overcoming these problems by connecting large numbers of research sites, ensuring the data collected is compatible and combined and permitting analysis of the data from remote sites. e-Science also helps multiple researchers in different clinical and methodological areas work collaboratively.
The NeuroGrid consortium will use e-Science to create a network of neuroimaging centres and a tool-kit for analysing neuroimaging data. This will allow data, experience and expertise to be shared across multiple research sites and will make possible the large-scale clinical studies that are urgently required.
New developments in information technology ? called e-Science ? provide the means for overcoming these problems by connecting large numbers of research sites, ensuring the data collected is compatible and combined and permitting analysis of the data from remote sites. e-Science also helps multiple researchers in different clinical and methodological areas work collaboratively.
The NeuroGrid consortium will use e-Science to create a network of neuroimaging centres and a tool-kit for analysing neuroimaging data. This will allow data, experience and expertise to be shared across multiple research sites and will make possible the large-scale clinical studies that are urgently required.
Technical Summary
Advances in neuroimaging have already led to breakthroughs in the clinical management of neurological disorders and current developments hold comparable promise for neuropsychiatric disorders. e-Science and Grid technologies can help overcome these problems by the integration of image acquisition, storage and analysis, and by enhancing collaborative working within and between sites.
The NeuroGrid consortium will enhance collaboration between clinical, imaging and e-scientists to create a grid-based network of neuroimaging centres and a neuroimaging tool-kit. Sharing data, experience and expertise will facilitate the archiving, curation, retrieval and analysis of imaging data from multiple sites and enable large-scale clinical studies.
NeuroGrid will be developed by simultaneous activity at three discrete, but integrated levels. The first level will establish the Grid connectivity and utilise the experience of e-Diamond. The second is the development of the Grid-enabled toolkit and image normalisation capabilities, and will build on the services developed within the IXI project. The third level is the 3 exemplars: each aiming to solve a set of specific, but generalisable problems. The clinical exemplars provide the data and the real world clinical applications and problems that NeuroGrid is designed to solve. For users, NeuroGrid is intended to appear as an integrated capability consisting of services, both database and analysis, accessed through simple portals.
The NeuroGrid consortium will enhance collaboration between clinical, imaging and e-scientists to create a grid-based network of neuroimaging centres and a neuroimaging tool-kit. Sharing data, experience and expertise will facilitate the archiving, curation, retrieval and analysis of imaging data from multiple sites and enable large-scale clinical studies.
NeuroGrid will be developed by simultaneous activity at three discrete, but integrated levels. The first level will establish the Grid connectivity and utilise the experience of e-Diamond. The second is the development of the Grid-enabled toolkit and image normalisation capabilities, and will build on the services developed within the IXI project. The third level is the 3 exemplars: each aiming to solve a set of specific, but generalisable problems. The clinical exemplars provide the data and the real world clinical applications and problems that NeuroGrid is designed to solve. For users, NeuroGrid is intended to appear as an integrated capability consisting of services, both database and analysis, accessed through simple portals.
Publications


Al-Shahi Salman R
(2019)
Effects of antiplatelet therapy after stroke due to intracerebral haemorrhage (RESTART): a randomised, open-label trial
in The Lancet

Blair G
(2020)
Stroke in the Older Person

El-Tawil S
(2019)
Observer agreement on CT Perfusion imaging in acute ischemic stroke
in Stroke

Geddes J
(2006)
Designing for e-Health: recurring scenarios in developing grid-based medical imaging systems.
in Studies in health technology and informatics

Greenhalgh T
(2017)
Maximising value from a United Kingdom Biomedical Research Centre: study protocol.
in Health research policy and systems

Lo JW
(2019)
Profile of and risk factors for poststroke cognitive impairment in diverse ethnoregional groups.
in Neurology

Mair G
(2021)
Feasibility and diagnostic accuracy of using brain attenuation changes on CT to estimate time of ischemic stroke onset.
in Neuroradiology

Power D
(2006)
Securing web services for deployment in health grids
in Future Generation Computer Systems

Simpson A
(2007)
On The Development of Secure Service-Oriented Architectures to Support Medical Research
in International Journal of Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics
Description | BHF-Turing Cardiovascular Data Science Award "Uncovering retinal microvascular predictors of compromised brain haemodynamics in small vessel disease"; MO Bernabeu Llinares, JM Wardlaw, SJ Wiseman, T MacGillivray, R Sarkar, F Doubal |
Amount | £110,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | BHF-Turing-19/2/1038 |
Organisation | British Heart Foundation (BHF) |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 12/2019 |
End | 12/2021 |
Description | MRC Research Grant (HSPHRB) |
Amount | £418,829 (GBP) |
Organisation | Medical Research Council (MRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2007 |
End | 02/2009 |
Description | NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research |
Amount | £1,580,921 (GBP) |
Organisation | National Institute for Health Research |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2009 |
End | 06/2015 |
Description | Real-world Independent Testing of eASPECTS Software (RITeS) |
Amount | £83,716 (GBP) |
Funding ID | STA CR 2017/01 |
Organisation | Stoke Association |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2019 |
End | 07/2019 |
Description | Strategic Awards |
Amount | £1,470,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 102616/Z/13/Z |
Organisation | Wellcome Trust |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2014 |
End | 04/2016 |
Title | NeuroGrid Portal |
Description | Allows data retrieval and analysis of federated datasets |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2008 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | NK |
Title | Quality Assurance Box |
Description | Allows real-time remote quality assurance of MRI data |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | NK |
Description | ENBREC |
Organisation | European Commission |
Department | Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | I am a member of ENBREC and facilitated link with NeuroGrid |
Collaborator Contribution | Neurogrid outputs, infrastructure and multidisciplinary team used for the neuroimaging component of ENBREC project and plan is to deploy the interoperability and database-federation experience to create European network |
Impact | None so far - NeuroGrid contributed to mid-term report to EU |
Start Year | 2009 |
Description | Lifelong Health and Wellbeing application |
Organisation | University College London |
Department | Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Identification of potential for partnership |
Collaborator Contribution | We have collaborated on developing the Whitehall 2 cohort. The next phase of this collaboration is an application for a large-scale neuroimaging study of the cohort - which will use some of the NeuroGrid experience and expertise on quality assurance in multisite neuroimaging |
Impact | MRC grant application G1001354 Multidisciplinary: Psychiatry Psychology Epidemiology Neuroimaging |
Start Year | 2009 |
Description | NeuroPsyGrid |
Organisation | University of Manchester |
Department | School of Medicine Manchester |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The NeuroPsyGrid collaboration seeks to enhance the two existing MRC-funded Grid projects by working together on areas of mutual interest, and thus to helping develop national and international e-Science collaborations in psychosis research. We aim to harmonise our joint work towards an essential database, common metadata and a simple ontology for psychosis; to use these integrated clinical, behavioural and image data to answer clinically relevant questions; to study structural and functional brain imaging reproducibility within and between three centres from PsyGrid and two centres from NeuroGrid; and to ensure that these data acquisition, storage and access arrangements are compatible with other major national and international initiatives. In particular, by adopting a novel focus on changes in clinical and biological variables over time, we will be able to develop a simple ontology that explicitly incorporates the temporal domain. We hope that developing this infrastructure and piloting these processes will put us and other mental health researchers in a better position to conduct large multi-centre clinical and neuro-imaging studies of earlier detection methods, more effective treatments and finally even preventative interventions in people at high risk of or in the early stages of psychosis. |
Collaborator Contribution | Partner in research |
Impact | (G0300623) - please add: 19717283 Tomelleri, Luisa; (Dec, 2009) Brain structural changes associated with chronicity and antipsychotic treatment in schizophrenia., European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 19, 12, 835-40 Arising from the coallaboration between NPG and the ECNP neuroimgaing network Power calculations for multicenter imaging studies controlled by the false discovery rate. Suckling J, Barnes A, Job D, Brenan D, Lymer K, Dazzan P, Marques TR, Mackay C, McKie S, Williams SR, Williams SC, Lawrie S, Deakin B. Hum Brain Mapp. 2010 Jan 8. [Epub ahead of print] |
Start Year | 2006 |
Description | "Neurology and Neuroradiology Collaborations to Detect cSVD" 13th World Stroke Organisation Conference 2021, 29 October 2021, virtual. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | virtual meeting |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Prof Joanna Wardlaw feature in Health Matters magazine |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A feature in Health Matters magazine, Winter 2018-2019 issue, P 24-25. Wardlaw, JM. "MRI scans of the brain". |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Prof Joanna Wardlaw lecture "Brain Health: a small matter of the blood vessels" in Edinburgh, UK. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Edinburgh Neuroscience Public Christmas Lecture 2018 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Prof Joanna Wardlaw talk "Cerebral small vessel disease is a relapsing and remitting neurodegenerative disorder" in Birmingham, UK |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Prof Joanna Wardlaw talk "Cerebral small vessel disease is a relapsing and remitting neurodegenerative disorder" on the 4th Oct 2019, MRC UK Dementia Research Institute Annual Scientific Meeting (Connectome), in Birmingham, UK |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Prof Joanna Wardlaw talk "What makes a good paper and how to prepare it? Suggestions based on my person experience",Beijing, China |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Prof Joanna Wardlaw talk "What makes a good paper and how to prepare it? Suggestions based on my person experience", at the Tiantan International Stroke Conference 2019, 28 June 2019, Beijing, China |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Prof Joanna Wardlaw talk "Where next for stroke research?" in Edinburgh, UK. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Prof Joanna Wardlaw talk "Where next for stroke research?"at the 6th Edinburgh Stroke Winter School, 19th February 2019, Edinburgh, UK. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Prof Joanna Wardlaw talk ''Imaging - where we are and where we are headed'', Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, UK |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Prof Joanna Wardlaw talk ''Imaging - where we are and where we are headed'' at the Diagnostic Medicine - from stethoscope to artificial intelligence 2019, 19 September 2019, Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, UK |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Prof Joanna Wardlaw talk 'Why is one small blood vessel such a giant problem for mankind?', 2nd Lenstra Lecture, Lugano, Switzerland |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Prof Joanna Wardlaw talk 'Why is one small blood vessel such a giant problem for mankind?' at the 2nd Lenstra Lecture 2019, Philantrhopic Endowed Lecture, Swiss Italian Centre for Neuroscience, in Lugano, Switzerland, 1 October 2019. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Royal College of Physicians 'Women in medicine: a celebration' project |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Royal College of Physicians (RCP)'s 'Women in medicine: a celebration' project is a free exhibition of specially commissioned photographic portraits to honour contemporary and historical women in medicine. The project showcased a number of today's leading female clinicians and the women from the history of medicine who have inspired them. Prof Joanna Wardlaw is featured in the project alongside someone who inspired her, Marie Sklodowska Curie: https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/women-medicine-joanna-wardlaw-and-marie-curie |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/events/women-medicine-celebration |
Description | SVD Research LinkedIn |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | SVD Research LinkedIn social media channel promoting work of the University of Edinburgh SVD Research groups, including publications, awards, press releases, recent vacancies and other associated activities, aiming to build an international network of professionals specialising in the SVD Research and promote the research to funding bodies, policy makers and industry professionals. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://uk.linkedin.com/in/svd-research-5aaa27199 |
Description | The Row Fogo Centre for Research into Ageing and the Brain website |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Being officially recognised as a Research Centre in 2018, The Row Fogo Centre for Research into Ageing and the Brain launched a new website. The website is directed in multiple audiences. Content includes a comprehensive description of the Centre research activity, updates on recent publications, news and organised events. The website contains information for PhD candidates and medical imaging researchers about related programmes and courses, and for visiting staff and students on how to join SVD Research Groups. The website gives a breadth of ways to fundraise and donate to support SVD research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://www.ed.ac.uk/clinical-brain-sciences/research/row-fogo-centre |