Unmet Need
Despite the extensive research on the anatomy of the human brain, there still remains many anatomical features that are difficult to characterize. Additionally, anatomical brain variation amongst individuals participating in research may contribute toward ambiguity in understanding specific structures of the brain. The brain is composed of gray and white matter that each contribute toward processing or communication, respectively. One step forward toward better understanding the brain regions has been the creation of an atlas of white matter regions (Oishi et al. 2008), however an in-depth atlas for gray matter regions remains to be generated. Therefore, there is a strong fundamental need for an atlas that elucidates the nuclei dense gray matter regions of the human brain.
Technology Overview
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have developed a novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) susceptibility multi-atlas library consisting of 23 atlases complete with images containing different anatomical patterns. This atlas library may serve as the basis for automatic segmentation of brain nuclei and quantify tissue susceptibility and other MRI properties of regions within the brain.
