Post-Mortem MRI-Histology Analysis

Combining information from histology at microscopic scales (microns or less) with the information from MRI (millimetre resolution) is crucial in order to (i) understand the relationship between the MRI signal and histology, to develop biomarkers for disease and aid diagnoses, and (ii) explore relationships between distant, but connected, brain regions for probing disease mechanisms. This project aims to register images from cutting-edge post-mortem MRI to histological sections taken from the same brain. Current registration methods fail in this task as there are significantly different tissue distortions and structures highlighted in the different modalities. The proposed work will develop a novel registration technique by exploring an integration of feature-based and standard intensity-based similarity measures, and apply pattern recognition methods for the detection of tears and holes within the histologically-stained tissue slices. Development and optimisation of the overall imaging/histology protocol and analysis of the registered images will also form part of the project.