Natalia Petridou

My research is at the intersection of neuroimaging with emphasis on MRI, biomedical engineering, computational neuroscience, and fundamental neuroscience. The ultimate goals are to enable non-invasive quantitative MRI measurements that can be used to infer neuronal and vessel function in the human brain, and to further our understanding neurovascular coupling mechanisms in health and neurovascular pathologies. On the technical side, my research group develops innovative MRI methods at human ultra-high field (7 tesla) to enable measurements of neuro-vascular function at the level of detail that is fundamental for brain function (μm to few mm). On the neuroscience side, my group seeks to elucidate neurovascular coupling mechanisms in the human brain at the same level of detail. A large part of this research focuses on the development and validation of computational models that can enable quantitative assessment of neuro-vascular function from MRI measurements. This includes assessment of spatial (e.g. laminar) and temporal aspects of function of neuronal populations and of intracortical vessels (e.g. vascular reactivity, blood flow patterns). We build methods and fundamental knowledge by studying the healthy human brain, and apply these to neurovascular pathologies with a specific interest in dementia.

My training blends neuroimaging, MRI physics, biomedical engineering, computing, and neuroscience with a focus on neurovascular coupling and neurophysiology. My Master’s training was in biomedical engineering and MR spectroscopy, at the George Washington University, Washington DC USA, and the In Vivo NMR Research Center of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA. I pursued my doctoral research at the unit of functional imaging methods, NIMH, NIH USA, which exposed me to pioneers and experts in functional MRI and MRI, (neuro)physiological mechanisms underlying fMRI signals, as well as electrophysiology and properties of neuronal circuits.  I pursued my post-doctoral training as a Sir Peter Mansfield fellow (Nobel Prize for Medicine 2003) at the University of Nottingham UK, and have worked on advanced 7 tesla fMRI techniques since the early days of human 7 tesla MRI scanners. As a post-doc at the University Medical Center Utrecht, I was in the front-lines of cortical depth-resolved fMRI (laminar fMRI) development for the human brain, and I eventually started my own group zooming in on neurovascular coupling. Each of these informs the current research of my group, in which we take an integrated approach to understand the mechanisms of neurovascular coupling in health and disease, spanning advanced neuroimaging methods development, computational modelling, and the relationship between neuronal and vascular function in the human brain.