Department of Physics Colloquium: Computational neuroanatomy with magnetic resonance imaging: from meso- to micro-scales

Presenter: Dr. Ali Khan

Abstract:

Advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technologies are providing the capability to probe the structure of the brain non-invasively at unprecedented spatial scales, promising major neuroscientific and clinical benefits.  Ultra-high field strength scanners are enabling higher resolution images to capture meso-scale structure, but not without new challenges in acquisition and image processing. This talk will describe recent work in our lab to address these issues, through the development of computational neuroimaging approaches informed by the intrinsic biology and anatomy of the brain. We will show how new computational models of anatomy are made possible with higher resolution imaging, offering new insights into the well studied hippocampus, and how we are developing and validating quantitative MRI techniques to study microstructure. 

Bio:

Dr. Khan is an Assistant Professor of Medical Biophysics at Western University, London, Canada, Scientist in the Imaging Research Laboratories and Centre for Functional & Metabolic Mapping (CFMM) at Robarts Research Institute, and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Computational Neuroimaging.  He completed his PhD at Simon Fraser University in 2011, and joined Robarts to continue working on advanced medical image analysis technologies for improving the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders.  He leads the Khan Computational Imaging Lab, focused on the development of novel image processing and analytics using quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).