Neuroradiological Academic Unit

Professor Tarek Yousry

The Unit’s research focuses on anatomic, functional and vascular imaging.

In collaboration with Professor Roger Ordidge (Head of the Wellcome Trust High-Field MR Laboratory), we are developing a programme to advance morphological imaging using high resolution imaging (3T MR) and MR microscopy (7T). This will enable us to advance our understanding of the pathogenesis of diseases such as MS, Alzheimer’s disease and hippocampal sclerosis; to improve the accuracy of therapeutic interventions in functional neurosurgery; and to improve the specificity of quantitative MR. In collaboration with the Stroke Unit, we are developing and using MR specific techniques that will assist us in advancing our understanding
of pathological mechanisms leading to stroke. In collaboration with the Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, we are introducing functional imaging into the clinical environment and are therefore in the process of establishing the indications for the clinical use of fMRI.

Finally, in collaboration with Dr Jeremy Rees (Department of Molecular Neuroscience), we are determining early markers of transformation of lowgrade gliomas into high-grade gliomas using diffusion and perfusion imaging. Dr Klaus Schmierer, in collaboration with Professors Tarek Yousry, Sebastian Brandner (Department of Neurodegenerative Disease), David Miller (Department of Neuroinflammation) and Roger Ordidge (Department of Medical Physics, UCL), is investigating the potential of using high field strength MRI and quantitative histology into postmortem examination of brains from patients with MS. The activities of the Unit will increase significantly with the completion of the “Joint MR Project” during 2006, to provide an additional .5T MR, 3T MR, and an interventional MR suite within the NHNN.

The UCL Institute of Neurology promotes teaching and research of the highest quality in neurology and the neurosciences. The Institute of Neurology and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery are members of  UCL Partners, Europe's largest academic health science partnership.