Edinburgh Imaging

31 May 17. BRAINS position paper

Practical recommendations from the BRAINS (Brain Imaging in Normal Subjects) Expert Working Group

BRAINS Biobanking workshop position paper - free access

Improving data availability for brain image biobanking in healthy subjects: Practice-based suggestions from an international multidisciplinary working group

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.02.030

Brain Image Biobanking

Brain imaging is now ubiquitous in clinical practice and research. The case for bringing together large amounts of image data from well-characterised healthy subjects and those with a range of common brain diseases across the life course is now compelling. This report follows a meeting of international experts from multiple disciplines, all interested in brain image biobanking.

Electronic Databanks

We now have a growing number of electronic databanks including brain imaging, that are available, either from dedicated cohorts e.g.

Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

UK Biobank

IMAGEN

or collections of studies e.g.

Brain Imaging in Normal Subjects

Dementia Platform UK

Open Access Series of Imaging Studies (OASIS)

 

The need for an international network

The aim is to maximise the benefit of the image data, provided voluntarily by research participants and funded by many organisations for human health;  to ensure databanks are registered on a publicly accessible registration website and for an international registry for neuroimaging studies or databanks to be developed.

Truly global, inter-regional initiatives are achieveable, in order to make full use of neuroimaging to understand the brain across the life-course.

The group's ultimate vision would be that a federated network of brain image biobanks accessible for large studies of brain structure and function, is created.

Free Access to paper

To provide free access to this article for 50 days, until July 20, 2017, please click on the following link - https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1V86F3lc~q-QQe