University of Sheffield awarded £1.3 million EPSRC Project

A multi-disciplinary research team led by Professor Alejandro Frangi, of CISTIB at the University of Sheffield and including Professor Annalena Venneri, Professsor Paul Ince and Dr Robin Highley from SITraN, has been awarded £1.3 million from the EPSRC to characterise and quantify early differential alterations in brain blood transport and subsequent microstructural tissue damage with a novel MRI technique.

The project, entitled One-stop-shop microstructure-sensitive perfusion/diffusion MRI: Application to vascular cognitive impairment, will deliver MRI sequences and analysis tools to link neuropathology, neuroimaging, and biophysics, thus being optimally positioned to discover novel biomarkers of dementia onset and progression, and to understand the effects of novel drugs and treatments.

The international team includes co-investigators at the University of Manchester and University of Cardiff as well as collaborators at the University of Antwerp and CEA-NeuroSpin along with industrial partners and charities in the UK and Europe (see table below).

The 3 year project, was ranked 1st out of 5 proposals funded from 40 submissions and involves the University’s Faculty of Engineering (CISTIB and INSIGNEO), Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (SITraN and INSIGNEO) and Department of Psychology (Pre-Clinical MRI Facility), as well as charities and industrial partners from the UK and Europe.

Professor Frangi said “we are delighted by this phenomenal opportunity to contribute to the efforts to combat dementias. It is through interdisciplinary efforts like OCEAN that we will be able to develop appropriate diagnostic and staging tools for the disease. I am really proud to count for this journey with colleagues in SITraN and INSIGNEO as well as with experts in Manchester and Cardiff, and beyond.”

http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/M006328/1

Investigators

Name	Role	Institution
Frangi, Professor AF	Principal Investigator	University of Sheffield
Kennerley, Dr AJ	Co-Investigator	University of Sheffield
Parker, Professor G	Co-Investigator	University of Manchester
Venneri, Professor A	Co-Investigator	University of Sheffield
Highley, Dr R	Co-Investigator	University of Sheffield
Jones, Professor DK	Co-Investigator	Cardiff University
Taylor, Dr ZA	Co-Investigator	University of Sheffield
Wilkinson, Professor ID	Co-Investigator	University of Sheffield
Ince, Professor PG	Co-Investigator	University of Sheffield
Dr L Beltrachini	Researcher Co-Investigator	University of Sheffield