About Me

I am a postdoctoral researcher interested in the brain’s connectivity architecture, and how we can combine imaging with computational techniques to improve our understanding of brain networks.

Current Role

Since November 2021, I have been working as a Research Fellow at UCL in the Progression Of Neurodegenerative Disease (POND) Group. I am working on mechanistic modelling of tau spread in Alzheimer’s disease, specifically how we can combine connectivity information from different modalities to improve the accuracy of our models.

Previous Work

I completed my PhD in 2021 in the Computational Neuroimaging Laboratory at the University of Nottingham, supervised by Professor Stam Sotiropoulos and Dr Matteo Bastiani. During my PhD, I developed new methods for exploring white matter connections in the neonatal brain.

A key part of my PhD project was a new framework for data-driven connectivity mapping (paper here). We used non-negative matrix factorisation to extract white matter connectivity patterns and their corresponding grey matter networks from whole-brain connectivity matrices. This provides a way of extracting white matter bundles from tractography data, without the need for pre-defined regions of interest.

I also developed a new set of tractography protocols for neonates, based on the XTRACT framework. The protocols allow automated tracking of 42 white matter bundles that are equivalently defined for the adult human and macaque, and are included in FSL. We have used these protocols to define a common space to study changes in brain connectivity through development and across different species. This work has recently been published in Science Advances.

Other Interests

I am interested in sustainability, and how we can reduce our environmental impact as researchers in neuroimaging. I joined the OHBM Sustainability and Environmental Action Group to gain a better understanding of these issues, and to help communicate them to the wider neuroimaging community as part of the Education and Outreach working group. We have lots of exciting projects in the pipeline, which you can follow on twitter.