EXPERT HUB
Expertise: Neuroimaging
#prevention #clinicaltrials #cohorts #drugdiscovery #riskfactors #neuroimaging #pharmacology #exercise #nutrition #pollution #nursing #psychiatry #immunology #lifestyle #psychology #cognition #healthyageing #livingwell #stroke #mentalhealth #wayfinding
Professor Alison Murray
Alison is the Roland Sutton Professor of Radiology at the University of Aberdeen. She is Director of the Scottish Imaging Network: A Platform for Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE) a brain imaging pooling initiative, an executive member of the Scottish Dementia Research Consortium and past-president of the Scottish Radiological Society.
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Alison leads NHS molecular brain imaging in people with neurodegenerative diseases and dementia. She has a track record of brain magnetic resonance imaging research in the Aberdeen Birth Cohorts on factors that increase risk of cognitive impairment and conversely, what provides resilience to decline.
She is passionate about the influence of early-life socioeconomic circumstance on late-life brain health
Dr Mario Parra Rodriguez
Mario is a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and member of the Scottish Dementia Research Consortium Executive Committee.
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Mario graduated as a Medical Doctor in 1993 and as a Clinical Neurophysiologist in 1997. He worked at the Cuban Neuroscience Centre and at different University Hospitals in Cuba and in Colombia. During his clinical work he focused on neuropsychological and neurophysiological aspects of dementia syndromes and other neurological disorders and taught neuroscience related subjects in the field of medicine and psychology.
Mario's motivation for teaching and research led me to a major career change into academia. This started with his PhD in 2005 at the University of Edinburgh and continued with three Postdoctoral Fellowships and a position as a Clinical Studies Officer within the NHS Scotland. Mario was as an Assistant Professor in Psychology at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh from 2015 until 2018 before joining the University of Strathclyde.
Dr Amir Dehservi
Amir is a researcher developing automatic methods for detecting (brain imaging, speech, etc.) biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, by considering the novel application of Evolutionary Algorithms.
In his position as a Research Fellow at teh University of Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre, Amir is working with a multidisciplinary team of clinicians and scientists who are focused upon unravelling the mechanisms of chronic fatigue, a salient issue across the chronic disease spectrum. Specifically, he is looking into the analysis and understanding of a multi-modal MRI/fMRI brain study, using machine learning techniques (including Evolutionary Algorithms), in order to characterise the mediators of fatigue in patients with rheumatoid arthritis among other diseases.
Dr Gordon Waiter
Gordon graduated from the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, in 1989 with a BSc (Hons) in Physical Sciences majoring in Physics. He then moved to Dundee University, Department of Medical Physics as Research Assistant, to develop MR imaging test objects. He returned to Aberdeen in 1991, this time to the University of Aberdeen to undertake a PhD in Medical Physics, under the supervision of Dr. M. Foster.
He joined the staff of Aberdeen University in 1996 as a research fellow working in collaboration with the university Department of Biomedical Physics and NHS Department of Cardiology to develop image analysis methods for the detection of hibernating myocardium.
In 2001 Gordon joined the School of Psychology to help initiate functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on a new 1.5T research dedicated scanner at the University of Aberdeen.
In 2004 he joined the Department of Radiology (now part of the Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre) to continue the development of functional magnetic resonance imaging in Aberdeen. His work has included paradigm design, data analysis, data acquisition, quality control and image analysis. Gordon was appointed Senior Lecturer in 2009.
Fraser Sneden
Fraser is a PhD student within the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow. He is working on data from the XILO-FIST clinical trial, a study which investigates the affect of allopurinol on long-term outcomes following ischaemic stroke.
Fraser is interested in exploring the relationship between carotid artery structure, brain structure and cognition in ischaemic stroke, and developing an automated tool that will estimate vascular parameters of carotid structure including stenosis.
Additionally, he aims to investigate any effects allopurinol has on carotid artery structure, including percentage of stenosis and intima-media thickness
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Expertise
#brainhealth #neuroimaging #alzheimersdisease
Dr Jennifer Waymont
Jenny is a Research Officer with Brain Health Scotland, and an honorary Research Fellow with the Aberdeen Biomedical Imaging Centre at the University of Aberdeen.
Jenny completed a BSc in Clinical and Health Psychology, an MSc in Psychological Research, and an MSc in Neuroimaging at Bangor University, Wales, before undertaking her PhD in Medical Imaging at the University of Aberdeen under the supervision of Dr. Gordon Waiter, Dr. Chris McNeil, and Prof. Alison Murray. Jenny's PhD explored brain imaging markers of neurodegenerative disease, focusing on predictors of brain white matter hyperintensity volume in normal ageing in the Aberdeen Children of the Nineteen Fifties Cohort (ACONF). During her PhD, Jenny also worked with TauRx Pharmaceuticals, examining WMH volume in clinical trial participants living with Alzheimer's Disease and behavioural variant Frontotemporal Dementia.
Since completing her PhD, Jenny has been working with Brain Health Scotland, predominantly on a project exploring current care pathways in Scotland for the diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Jenny also works alongside Prof. Craig Ritchie on the implementation of Brain Health Services.