PhD STUDENTSHIP, LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE AND TROPICAL MEDICINE
"Statistical methods for the analysis of longitudinal brain imaging data
in dementia."
Applications are invited An EPSRC funded Industrial CASE PhD studentship
with GlaxoSmithKline, in collaboration with the Dementia Research Centre
at the Institute of Neurology UCL. The research will be done under the
auspices of leading institutions in statistics and medical imaging, with
the potential to generate important advances in the use of imaging for
diagnosis and management of dementia.
For informal discussion contact Professor Mike Kenward
([log in to unmask]) or Chris Frost ([log in to unmask]).
This three year award covers full tuition fees and maintenance for UK
residents and tuition fees only for other EU nationals. Details on
industrial CASE awards can be found on the EPSRC website
(http://www.epsrc.ac.uk).
To apply, send a current CV with the names of two referees, and a
covering letter to Sarah Thorne, Medical Statistics Unit, London School
of Hygiene of Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT.
The closing date for applications is 16/07/2004.
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is an exempt charity
dedicated to providing excellence in teaching, learning and research for
the benefit of health worldwide.
Further Details:
Dementia presents a growing public health problem in ageing populations.
With the advent of potential therapies, there has been an increasing
demand for tools to aid early diagnosis. In addition, effective markers
of disease progression may play an important role in assessments of drug
efficacy. The aims of this research project are to develop new
statistical procedures for the analysis of voxel level longitudinal data
in structural brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) studies by
integrating existing techniques primarily developed for functional
imaging with methods for the statistical analysis of longitudinal data,
and to apply these techniques to improve diagnosis and understanding of
neurodegenerative diseases. The project will draw together three
strands of research. Firstly existing statistical techniques have been
developed for the analysis of 3D brain images at the voxel level. Such
analysis attempts to directly analyse the approximately million signal
intensities (arising in an approximate 100x100x100 3D grid) that make up
each scan. There has been much work in this area; however most of it has
been in functional imaging applications. Functional imaging involves
repeated short-term stimuli being applied to subjects with multiple
short-term images acquired. An aim of this project will be to see to
what extent such techniques can be used when interest focuses on
long-term structural changes. Secondly automated techniques have been
developed at the Dementia Research Centre for positional matching, or
registration, of serial images on the same subject. Such techniques
substantially reduce the impact of measurement error. Registration of
serial MRI can be used to generate difference images, which consist of
many thousands of voxel level measurements, each representing change
over time in an individual. The correlation structure of these voxel
level measures of difference has strong implications for the development
of analytical techniques and this will be explored in the
project.Thirdly in parallel with the growth in imaging technology over
the past decade there has been substantial growth in statistical
methodology that is relevant to longitudinal studies of brain imaging.
Models that can accommodate the potentially complex pattern of
variability within- and between-images can be formatted and fitted
within the framework of models for hierarchical and dependent data using
well established comuter intensive methods. Such methods have achieved
great success in other areas of the life sciences including biological
modelling and environmental epidemiology.
The project is a collaboration between three institutions, the Medical
Statistics Unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,
the Dementia Research Centre at the Institute of Neurology UCL and
GlaxoSmithKline. The Medical Statistics Unit has major research
interests in the analysis of longitudinal data and both co-supervisors,
Professor Mike Kenward and Chris Frost have worked extensively in this
field. The Dementia Research Centre is one of the leading imaging
centres in the UK. Dr Nick Fox, who will provide a clinical lead, is an
expert in the field of medical imaging and responsible for the
development of the image registration techniques that will be used in
the project. The Dementia Research Centre has a carefully archived
database of clinical and research MRIs. This includes serial imaging of
over 300 subjects with a variety of dementias. A wide range of
between-scan intervals, from same-day to several years, are available
due to prospective imaging of individuals with dementia and controls.
These data represent a powerful resource for the work proposed.
GlaxoSmithKline has a portfolio of on-going studies involving medical
imaging and a commitment to developing new techniques in this area. In
anticipation of the Clinical Imaging Centre (opening in 2006),
GlaxoSmithKline is building up a strong group of imaging scientists, MR
physicists and clinicians to perform cutting-edge research in medical
imaging. This base of knowledge, and resources available at
GlaxoSmithKline, provide a unique compliment to the academic
institutions involved.
Chris Frost
Senior Lecturer in Medical Statistics
Medical Statistics Unit
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
+44(0)20 7927 2242
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