Sources of Funding

• Medical Research Council
• British Medical Association
• HDH Wills 1965 Charitable Trust

Fundraising for brain tumour research

If you'd like to support our lead neurooncology neurosurgeon and colleagues taking the 3-peak challenge this September 2022 to raise funding for brain tumour research (or in general, for the Brainstorm charity) please see the link to the justgiving page here - they are hoping to raise £100,000.

Our brand-new online Oxford Clinical Neuroimaging Course is now liveIf you are a clinical trainee,  work with clinical populations, or generally have some experience with imaging and would like to learn more about the very practical uses of MRI in clinical settings, please do click on the link to see the full programme.

D.Phil PROJECTS / RESEARCH PLACEMENTS

Please contact me if you would like to discuss D.Phil opportunities..

I am sorry that we are unable to offer research internships, shadowing, or other work experience placements due to limited space.

Research Summary

Our translational research uses non-invasive MRI brain imaging techniques to understand how disease and damage affects brain function. Our main area of research is patients who are undergoing brain surgery to treat a brain tumour or drug-resistant epilepsy. 

Our hope is that by developing a better understanding of the mechanisms that drive brain plasticity we may be able to identify patterns of brain activity predictive of risks and recovery after treatment. This multidisciplinary research, based at the FMRIB Centre, is conducted in close collaboration with the Oxford Epilepsy Surgery Programme and Neuro-Oncology Surgery service as well as neuroscientists at the Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity.

Additional translational interests include the effects of head trauma on the brain's structural and functional networks, a project spearheaded by one of my D.Phil students, consultant neurosurgeon Tim Lawrence. 

Biography

I am a Research Fellow / Principal Investigator at the FMRIB Centre (now part of the new Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging). 

I studied Experimental Psychology at Oxford (1999-2002) before completing a D.Phil at the FMRIB Centre (2002-2005) under the supervision of Prof. Paul Matthews focused on Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.  Following a post-doctoral position with Prof. Tipu Aziz’s Deep Brain Stimulation research group, I spent 3 years as imaging scientist at the GlaxoSmithKline Clinical Imaging Centre (now Imanova), assessing the sensitivity of multi-modal neuroimaging measures as early markers of efficacy for drugs targeting memory impairment among others.  In 2009, I moved to the MNI to work in the NeuroImaging of Epilepsy laboratory before returning to the Oxford FMRIB Centre on a MRC Fellowship later that year.