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Pronouns: she/her

Karla Miller

Director of the Oxford Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (OxCIN)

  • Professor of Biomedical Engineering
  • Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow
  • Associate Head for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, Oxford Medical Sciences Division

I am the Director of the Oxford Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (OxCIN). OxCIN is the successor to WIN, a multi-disciplinary neuroimaging research facility. We develop and deploy neuroimaging and related technologies to solve big challenges in basic neuroscience and brain health. I also lead the MRI Physics Group at OxCIN, which is a collection of PIs with shared interest in methods for acquiring, reconstructing, and analysing magnetic resonance imaging/spectroscopy data.

My research group is helping to advance the state of the art in MRI through improvements in signal sensitivity and specificity. We are developing methods to measure aspects of tissue microstructure that are central to neuronal health and disease. We are improving our understanding of MRI data in living subjects through scans of post-mortem brains in combination with light microscopy in the same tissue. We are developing the next generation of diffusion and functional MRI acquisition techniques for studying brain connectivity, by taking advantage of ultra-high field scanners and sophisticated signal processing. Finally, we are developing biophysically principled methods for data "harmonisation" to enable the translation of large-scale studies like UK Biobank into smaller-scale neuroimaging studies and clinical settings.

These methods will enable neuroscientists to study the brain with greater precision. My group is actively involved in collaborations with neuroscience colleagues in Oxford and elsewhere to study neuronal health and disease.

Finally, I am passionate about diversity & inclusion in academia, and the need to improve research culture. I lead EDI for Oxford's Medical Sciences Division.

DPhil Projects

I have regular DPhil opportunities for candidates with a background in physics, engineering or neuroscience. Projects will usually be designed collaboratively with the candidate. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss possible projects, including an up-to-date CV.

Key publications

Self-Navigated 3D Diffusion MRI Using an Optimized CAIPI Sampling and Structured Low-Rank Reconstruction Estimated Navigator

Journal article

Li Z. et al, (2025), IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 44, 632 - 644

An open resource combining multi-contrast MRI and microscopy in the macaque brain

Journal article

Howard AFD. et al, (2023), Nature Communications, 14

Why every lab needs a handbook

Journal article

Tendler BC. et al, (2023), eLife, 12

Phenotypic and genetic associations of quantitative magnetic susceptibility in UK Biobank brain imaging

Journal article

Wang C. et al, (2022), Nature Neuroscience, 25, 818 - 831

The Digital Brain Bank, an open access platform for post-mortem imaging datasets

Journal article

Tendler BC. et al, (2022), eLife, 11

Joint modelling of diffusion MRI and microscopy

Journal article

Howard AFD. et al, (2019), NeuroImage, 201, 116014 - 116014

Diffusion Acceleration with Gaussian process Estimated Reconstruction (DAGER)

Journal article

Wu W. et al, (2019), Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 82, 107 - 125

The spatial correspondence and genetic influence of interhemispheric connectivity with white matter microstructure

Journal article

Mollink J. et al, (2019), Nature Neuroscience, 22, 809 - 819

Multimodal population brain imaging in the UK Biobank prospective epidemiological study

Journal article

Miller KL. et al, (2016), Nature Neuroscience, 19, 1523 - 1536

More publications