Professor of Imaging Neuroscience, University of Oxford

Theme lead: Older adults and dementia

Email: clare.mackay@psych.ox.ac.uk

Phone: 01865 283802

My research focuses on using neuroimaging to understand risk for psychiatric and neurodegenerative disease. I lead the Translational Neuroimaging Group at the University of Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry.

By the time conditions such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease are clinically diagnosed, much of the damage in the brain is already done. My group focuses on understanding mechanisms of risk, i.e. investigating how factors such as particular genes change brain structure and function before people are suffering from the symptoms of disease. We hope that, when neuroprotective agents become available, we will be able to identify individuals in whom these agents will be most effective.

I focus on translating state-of-the-art imaging technologies for use in experimental medicine, and on developing open science platforms to reduce costs, improve reproducibility & robustness, and accelerate translation.

My interest in brain imaging began at the Magnetic Resonance and Image Analysis Research Centre (MARIARC) at the University of Liverpool. I moved to Oxford as a post-doc in 2000, and alongside developing an independent research career I managed the neuroimaging ‘half’ of the Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research (OCMR).

Awards:
NIHR Biomedical Research Centre Principal Fellow Award (2016-19)

Positions:
I am Associate Director of the Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity (OHBA), which is part of the new Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging. I head the Translational Neuroimaging Group, and am imaging lead for the Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre (OPDC), and the Whitehall II imaging study. Within the MRC Dementias Platform UK I am Open Science Champion, and lead the Imaging Informatics programme. I am also MRI lead for the MRC/NIHR Deep & Frequent Phenotyping study. I co-ordinate Oxford Dementia and Ageing Research (OxDARE), which brings together Oxford’s diverse dementia research and clinical community for the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.