EBRAINS (European Brain Research Infrastructures) has received €38 million from the European Commission to develop tools and services to serve research communities in neurosciences, brain medicine, and brain-inspired technologies.Starting in January 2024 and involving 59 partner institutions from 16 European countries, researchers in the Departments of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences and members of the Brain Cancer Virtual Institute (BCVI) will contribute to the EBRAINS 2.0 consortium in the aggregation of retrospective datasets from multiple centres, alongside prospective data collection, to build a comprehensive and contemporary resource of imaging data acquired from patients with brain tumours. Director of Research John Suckling (Psychiatry) is enthusiastic about the possibilities: “With the UK rejoining Horizons Europe, we can once again link with partners across the continent to develop key infrastructure”. In vivo imaging of patients with brain tumours is complex and has led to datasets of only modest size. “Combining data collected in Cambridge using funding from the NIHR and the Brain Tumour Charity with those from other centres gives a huge boost to machine learning applications for treatment and prognostic predictions” said Chao Li (Clinical Neurosciences), neurosurgeon and Clinical Fellow. Professor of Neurosurgical Oncology and BCVI co-Lead Stephen Price (Clinical Neurosciences) is equally optimistic: “Advanced neuroimaging and modelling of these large samples allow exploration of the possibilities of finding the right balance for patients of radical resection of tumours whilst maintaining quality-of-life”. Brain tumours patients recognise language, memory and social cognition as mental functions with deep effects on quality of life. EBRAINS 2.0 is a major step forward in finding generalizable principles for supported patient decision-making about their own care.
Posted on 30/01/2024
