Axel Wismueller, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Imaging Sciences and Biomedical Engineering has received an RO1 award from the National Institutes of Health for his project,Exploring large scale functional connectivity in the human brain: from bench to bedside. Supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and its AIDS research program, this three-year project will focus on developing a novel computational framework to explore directed information transfer in the human brain, which will permit connectivity analysis in large time-series ensembles obtained from functional MRI neuro-imaging studies.

To demonstrate the clinical applicability of this innovative framework, an associated clinical study will also investigate changes in brain networks observed in patients with HIV-related cognitive impairment under anti-retroviral therapy. The overall goal is to establish a clinical model for evaluating whole-brain functional connectivity as a novel biomarker for disease progression and therapy effectiveness. Embedded in the Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience program of the National Science Foundation, the project launches a transatlantic network that promotes teaching, training and career mentoring activities for young researchers at undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate levels.