NeuroGrid

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.

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.