Project Coordinator:
PD Dr. David Elmenhorst, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine - Molecular organization of the brain (INM-2), Forschungszentrum Juelich (FZJ), Germany
Project Partners:
PhD Jeroen Verhaeghe, Molecular Imaging Center Antwerp, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium
MD., Ph.D. Pedro Rosa-Neto, McGill University, Douglas Hospital Research Center, McGill Centre for Studies in Aging, Translational Neuroimaging Laboratory, Montreal, Canada
The proposed project is challenging and covers several complementary fields. Our interdisciplinary team of equal partners brings together the necessary extensive expertise and state-of-the-art methods and facilities for in vivo brain imaging, sleep physiology, EEG analyses, pharmacology, and cognitive testing. All collaboration partners have successfully conducted similar projects in the past, partly in collaboration as demonstrated by joint publications
The interdisciplinary consortium consists of engineers, radio-chemists, physicists, animal imaging specialists, human imaging specialists and psychiatric clinicians. All partners are highly experienced in their respective fields. Coordinator FZJ has a track record on sleep research and quantitative molecular imaging of small animals, patients and healthy subjects, Partner UAntwerp on PET image reconstruction and motion correction, and Partner McGill on animal models of depression and quantitative molecular imaging. Both FZJ and UAntwerp partners have successfully collaborated previously with McGill partner in several projects. The entire team will meet at least once annually to assess research progress and milestones, and to engage in forward planning.
PD Dr. David Elmenhorst has long-standing expertise in the field of neuroimaging, including conducting studies with healthy subjects and patients, especially in the context of sleep/wake regulation.
Dr. Jeroen Verhaeghe brings the required motion correction and image reconstruction expertise to the consortium. He has been working in PET head motion correction for over 10 years, initially for human brain imaging but now already for 5 years also for small animal PET of awake rats. He is also an expert in dynamic PET imaging and pharmacokinetic modelling both in humans and in rodents.
Dr. Pedro Rosa-Neto is a clinical neurologist who is interested in the structural changes that occur in the brain as a result of neuro-psychiatric disease. His studies involve using brain-imaging techniques including PET and MRI to observe and measure these changes. Pedro Rosa-Neto directs the Translational Neuroimaging Laboratory (TNL), a multi-site facility, which is shared between the Douglas Institute, the McGill Centre for Studies in Aging and the Montreal Neurological Institute. This cross intuitional lab, a first for Quebec, will link animal studies with human conditions, and help identify early markers of disease.