Dr Michael Thrippleton (PhD)
Research Fellow, HCPC-registered Clinical Scientist

- Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
- Edinburgh Imaging
Contact details
- Tel: +44 (0)1314 659529
- Email: m.j.thrippleton@ed.ac.uk
- Web: github page
Address
- Street
-
Chancellor's Building
49 Little France Crescent - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH16 4SB
Background
Michael Thrippleton is a Research Fellow and registered Clinical Scientist. He trained at Cambridge and MIT, and joined the Brain Research Imaging Centre as its Medical Physicist in 2012. Having helped to establish the Edinburgh Imaging Facility RIE, he now leads and supports magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a large number of clinical research studies.
Techniques: DCE-MRI, quantitative MRI, cerebrovascular reactivity, blood flow, MR spectroscopy
Disease areas: small vessel disease, neonatal, multiple sclerosis, reproductive, healthy physiology
Citizenship
International groups
Taskforce lead, Open Source Initiative for Perfusion Imaging (OSIPI)
Contributor to STRIVE2 consensus initiative for imaging in small vessel disease
Lead, HARNESS blood-brain barrier permeability harmonisation group (consensus paper)
Task force lead, HARNESS initiative to disseminate and standardise neuroimaging protocols for measuring the contributions of vascular disease to dementia and neurodegeneration.
Open-source software
Python software for T1 measurement and DCE-MRI analysis
Matlab software for relaxometry, DCE-MRI and magnetisation transfer MRI
OSIPI DSC/DCE-MRI code collection
Research grants
2021 – 2022 Wellcome Trust-UoE ISSF award (Co-I): Investigating mechanisms of brain and cognitive development in children born preterm, £30,000
2019 – 2020 Wellcome Trust-UoE ISSF award (PI): Precision engineering of reference objects for quantitative in-vivo imaging: validation of blood-brain barrier integrity measurement, £25,000
2019 – 2021 Leducq Foundation pilot fund scheme (Co-I): Comparison of DW-ASL and DCE-MRI BBB permeability metrics in clinical and pre-clinical cerebral small vessel disease, $10,000
2017 – 2019 MRC-NIH Partnering Award (Co-I): Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of brain vascular changes and white matter hyperintensities (WMH) in humans, £9,442
2015 – 2017 Alzheimer’s Society Project Grant (Co-I): Preventing cognitive decline and dementia from cerebral microvascular disease, £255,385
2014 – 2015 Chief Scientist Office (Co-I): Non-invasive measurement of cerebrovascular reactivity and compliance in cerebral small vessel disease: feasibility and estimation of sample size for translational research and clinical trials, £137,420
Selected publications
Cerebrovascular Reactivity Measurement Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Systematic Review. Front Physiol, 2021
Sources of systematic error in DCE-MRI estimation of low-level blood-brain barrier leakage, Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 2021
A four-dimensional computational model of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging measurement of subtle blood-brain barrier leakage. Neuroimage, 2021.
Quantifying blood-brain barrier leakage in small vessel disease: Review and consensus recommendations. Alzheimers & Dementia, 2019
Blood-brain barrier failure as a core mechanism in cerebral small vessel disease and dementia: evidence from a cohort study. Alzheimers & Dementia, 2017
Tracer kinetic modelling for DCE-MRI quantification of subtle blood-brain barrier permeability. Neuroimage, 2016
Reliability of MRSI brain temperature mapping at 1.5 and 3 T. NMR in Biomedicine, 2014
Ex Vivo Water Diffusion Tensor Properties of the Fibroid Uterus at 7 T and Their Relation to Tissue Morphology. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 2011
Satellite transitions acquired in real time by magic angle spinning (STARTMAS): "Ultrafast" high-resolution MAS NMR spectroscopy of spin I=3/2 nuclei. Journal of Chemical Physics, 2008
Thrippleton, M.J. and J. Keeler, Elimination of zero-quantum interference in two-dimensional NMR spectra. Angewandte Chemie, 2003
Studies supported (selected)
(work in progress)
- Investigate-SVDs (EU-funded multi-centre imaging study of cerebral small vessel disesase)
- TREAT-SVDs (EU-funded clinical trial in cerebral small vessel disease)
- Brain Changes in Sleep Apnoea (Fondation Leducq funded imaging study of sleep apnoea)
- Mild Stroke Study 3 (MRC/Fondation Leducq funded study of cerebral small vessel disease)
- FutureMS (Scotland-wide study of relapsing-onset multiple sclerosis)
- Theirworld Edinburgh Birth Cohort
Qualifications
2017 HCPC-registered Clinical Scientist
2004 PhD Natural Science, University of Cambridge
2000 M.Sci Natural Sciences (First Class), University of Cambridge
Responsibilities & affiliations
Senior Research Fellow (Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, Dementia Research Institute)
Medical Physicist, Edinburgh Imaging (RIE Facility)
Undergraduate teaching
Medical Physics module, Department of Physics
Postgraduate teaching
Neuroimaging for Research MSc, Imaging MSc
- creation of online teaching material
- tutoring, marking
Current PhD students supervised
Emilie Sleight
Cameron Manning
Alasdair Morgan
Sulaiman Sarwar
Past PhD students supervised
Yulu Shi
Anna Heye
Jehill Parikh
-
Immuno-epigenetic signature derived in saliva associates with the encephalopathy of prematurity and perinatal inflammatory disorders
(17 pages)
In:
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, vol. 110, pp. 322-338
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2023.03.011
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Cerebrovascular reactivity measurements using 3T BOLD MRI and a fixed inhaled CO2 gas challenge: Repeatability and impact of processing strategy
In:
Frontiers in physiology, vol. 14
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2023.1070233
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Corrigendum: Cerebrovascular reactivity measurement using magnetic resonance imaging: A systematic review
In:
Frontiers in physiology, vol. 13, pp. 1105285
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.1105285
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
The EffecTs of Amlodipine and other Blood PREssure Lowering Agents on Microvascular FuncTion in Small Vessel Diseases (TREAT-SVDs) trial: Study protocol for a randomised crossover trial
In:
European Stroke Journal, pp. 239698732211435
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/23969873221143570
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Breast milk exposure is associated with cortical maturation in preterm infants
In:
Annals of Neurology, vol. 93, pp. 591-603
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.26559
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Assessment of perivascular space filtering methods using a three-dimensional computational model
In:
Magnetic Resonance Imaging, vol. 93, pp. 33-51
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mri.2022.07.016
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Retinal capillary microvessel morphology changes are associated with vascular damage and dysfunction in cerebral small vessel disease
In:
Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0271678X221135658
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Longitudinal microstructural MRI markers of demyelination and neurodegeneration in early relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: Magnetisation transfer, water diffusion and g-ratio
In:
NeuroImage: Clinical, vol. 36, pp. 103228
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103228
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Associations of Peak-Width Skeletonized Mean Diffusivity and Post-Stroke Cognition
In:
Life, vol. 12, pp. 1362
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/life12091362
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Deep attention super-resolution of brain magnetic resonance images acquired under clinical protocols
(30 pages)
In:
Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, vol. 16
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2022.887633
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
General factors of white matter microstructure from DTI and NODDI in the developing brain
(15 pages)
In:
NeuroImage, vol. 254
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119169
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
A daily temperature rhythm in the human brain predicts survival after brain injury
In:
Brain
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awab466
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Prevalence and Significance of the Vessel-Cluster Sign on Susceptibility-Weighted Imaging in Patients With Severe Small Vessel Disease
In:
Neurology, pp. 10.1212/WNL.0000000000200614
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000200614
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Quantitative magnetisation transfer imaging in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis
In:
Brain Communications
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcac088
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Rationale and design of the brain magnetic resonance imaging protocol for FutureMS: a longitudinal multi-centre study of newly diagnosed patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis in Scotland
In:
Wellcome Open Research
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17731.1
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
DNA methylation in relation to gestational age and brain dysmaturation in preterm infants
In:
Brain Communications, vol. 4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcac056
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Effects of Cilostazol and Isosorbide Mononitrate on Cerebral Hemodynamics in the LACI-1 Randomized Controlled Trial
In:
Stroke
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.121.034866
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Tracer kinetic assessment of blood–brain barrier leakage and blood volume in cerebral small vessel disease: Associations with disease burden and vascular risk factors
In:
NeuroImage: Clinical, vol. 32, pp. 102883
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102883
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
MRI-derived g-ratio and lesion severity in newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis
In:
Brain Communications
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcab249
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Rim lesions are demonstrated in early relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis using 3 T-based susceptibility-weighted imaging in a multi-institutional setting
In:
Neuroradiology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-021-02768-x
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print)