The Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences (CNS) is a joint venture of the IoP and SLAM, partly funded by the recent award of a Wellcome JIF bid (>£6 million). Completed in early 2004, the centre provides, under one roof, an interdisciplinary research environment that combines the development of contemporary, high resolution structural, functional and metabolic mapping techniques, with our existing expertise in the definition, diagnosis and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Within the CNS, the Institute of Psychiatry’s Neuroimaging Research Group and Brain Image Analysis Unit are co-located with the Neuroimaging Department, part of the Specialist Services Directorate of the South London & Maudsley NHS Trust (SLAM). The former provide expertise in all aspects of MRI acquisition and processing (structural and volumetric imaging, spectroscopy, magnetisation transfer, diffusion and perfusion weighted imaging and fMRI including drug activation paradigms) to the whole Denmark Hill campus. The latter provides a full range of neuroradiographic imaging services, including Plain Radiography, Myelography, Computerised Tomography (CT), and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
The CNS houses, along with CT and plain scan xray equipment, two new state-of-the-art MR systems, one at 1.5T one at 3T. Both machines (along with an existing 1.5T scanner) are capable of performing functional, spectroscopic, anatomical and pathological mapping techniques. The co-location of these two systems will maximise the efficient use of time and space for the whole facility. This combination of equipment and expertise will be unique to the UK, and will ensure that the campus remains at the forefront of neuroimaging research.
Our current research projects span neurodegeneration, epilepsy, stroke, psychosis, affective disorders, developmental disorders, and normal brain function. In Alzheimer’s disease we are mapping the loss of cognition and/or retention of function following administration of new drugs. Structural imaging is also being used to assess the neuroprotective affects of several neurotrophic factors with the intention of applying optimised techniques to both Huntington and Parkinson’s disease. We are also using a battery of neuroimaging techniques which include perfusion, diffusion, functional and structural imaging, to assess the acute loss of function following stroke as well as the subsequent sub-acute recovery of function following cognitive rehabilitation. Our long-term objective in this area is to assess the recovery of function following more invasive therapeutic strategies, which include pharmacological agents and/or cell therapy. We are also developing a comprehensive neuroimaging approach to the investigation of motor neuron disease and movement disorders, with a combination of metabolic (chemical shift imaging), functional assessment (motor and language fMRI studies) and structural imaging (diffusion tensor imaging). Our overall long-term objective is to translate our on-going pre-clinical developments in neuroimaging to the clinic, improving diagnosis and treatment of all these diseases.
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