Our mission is to drive innovation in brain imaging for the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of neuropsychiatric disease. We prioritize accessibility, collaboration, and real-world clinical impact.
Inclusion & Accessibility
The NTRC aims to advance precision psychiatry by developing neuroimaging markers capable of reliably classifying patients into biologically meaningful groups. By building a collaborative community where methods and data are shared, the NTRC will drive the integration of neuroimaging with dimensional approaches to neuropsychiatric disease. To accomplish this, we will support a diverse range of researchers and studies, including those who are new to neuroimaging.
Innovation & Creativity
The NTRC aims to push the boundaries of neuroimaging and image-guided neuro-intervention through innovation.
Key Goals
- Develop and refine advanced imaging techniques, such as multishell diffusion and multiband multiecho fMRI, that fully utilize the high-performance gradients of the Cima.X platform. This will make it possible to explore brain tissue microstructure, connectivity, and function across a range of disease states at a resolution previously achievable on only a handful of custom build human connectome scanners.
- Establish safe methods for imaging during neuromodulation procedures, such as DBS, FUS, and TMS. This will involve optimizing techniques like BOLD fMRI, ASL, and acoustic-radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging to capture both local and global effects of neuromodulation in real time.
- Support the simultaneous collection of imaging, behavioral, and physiological data and the combination of these data streams for comprehensive multimodal studies.
Collaboration & Translation
The NTRC is dedicated to developing standardized and optimized pipelines for image acquisition and data processing. This will ensure that all data is quality-controlled, securely stored, and easily accessible to investigators for immediate review/analysis; it will also facilitate collaboration and data sharing both within UCSF and with external partners for multisite studies.
The center’s ultimate success will be measured by its impact on clinical practice. In partnership with Siemens and other industry leaders we will work to translate new methods for image acquisition and analysis into clinical neuroradiology practice at UCSF and beyond. By leveraging the diverse community of adult and pediatric patients who receive care at the UCSF Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building, the NTRC will become a core resource for imaging-intensive clinical trials that test the relevance of advances and facilitate rapid clinical translation of new imaging methods and image-guided interventions.