I completed my undergraduate degree in Mathematics at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, during this time I wrote my bachelor dissertation on prime number distribution.
I joined the CDT because Data Science is an exciting research area with lots of career opportunities and by completing my PhD here I’m hoping to join the rank of experts in this field. I’m looking forward to picking up a lot of practical skills and gaining industry experience.
In my free time I like to play squash, read and play the piano.
Quantifying shape in 3D space to understand (dys)function: from brain morphology to disease prediction
The morphology of our brains changes as we age and in disease. It is therefore a useful neurological biomarker and its exploration and better understanding can help us identify unique aspects in diseases like Alzheimer’s and epilepsy.
It is however not always straightforward to quantify the morphology of shapes as complex as the brain. Meaningful measures are required to allow the distinction between different processes, and the interpretation of the changes that are happening.
For my project I’m comparing the progression of measures of brain morphology due to natural ageing with epilepsy. The knowledge of how the two processes are similar and where they diverge will hopefully lead to better, more precise and earlier diagnostics and prediction of disease trajectory for individuals.
Similar work can also be done for dementias and mental disorders. I’m hoping to be able to build a classification system for these diseases based on their morphological features and identify stages in each disease’s progression, so see which paths are shared and when and how they diverge.
