Tianzi Jiang

LIAMA Center for Computational Medicine, National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition,
Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences
jiangtz@nlpr.ia.ac.cn

Abstract

Convergent evidence has shown that the psychiatric diseases are faulty brain networks. In order to understand the pathophysiological mechanism of psychiatric disorders, it is necessary to integrate the multi-level network features obtained with various functional and anatomical brain imaging technologies on different scales. On macroscale, such features can be obtained from networks based on illness special region of interest, networks related to specific cognitive function, and whole brain networks. We have proposed a new concept of “Brainnetome” to represent such integration framework. We define the essential components of Brainnetome as network topological structure (connectome), performance, dynamics, manifestation of functions and malfunctions of brain on different scales, genetic basis of brain networks, and simulating and modeling brain networks on supercomputing facilities. In fact, several projects have been launched in China to conduct studies of brainnetome for four different diseases with focal lesion (stoke and glioma) and diffusion lesions (schizophrenia and AD).  The Brainnetome Consortium has been established (www.brainnetome.org). This lecture will cover the above aspects of Brainnetome. It envisions that Brainnetome will become an emerging co-frontier of brain imaging, information technology, neurology and psychiatry. Some long-standing issues in neuropsychiatry may be solved by combining Brainnetome with genome.

Short Bio

Tianzi Jiang is Professor of Brain Imaging and Cognitive Disorders, Institute Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Professor of Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland. He received his Ph.D. degree from Zhejiang University in1994. After he graduated, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow (1994-1996) and Associate Professor (1996-1999), and full professor (1999-present) at his current institution. During that time, he worked as a Vice-Chancellor's postdoctoral fellow at the University of New South Wales, a visiting scientist at Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, a research fellow at the Queen’s University of Belfast, and a visiting professor at University of Houston. He is the Chinese Director of the Sino-French Laboratory in Computer Science, Automation and Applied Mathematics (LIAMA), one National Center for International Research, since 2006. His research interests include neuroimaging, Brainnetome, imaging genetics, and their clinical applications in brain disorders and development. He is the author or co-author of over 170 reviewed journal papers in these fields and the co-editor of six issues of the Lecture Notes in Computer Sciences. He is Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development, Neuroscience Bulletin and an Academic Editor of PLoS One.