معرفی
Professor Mara Cercignani is Professor and Head of MRI within the School of Psychology at Cardiff University. Internationally recognised for developing and applying quantitative MRI techniques, she leads a multidisciplinary programme that links non-invasive microstructural imaging to brain function and pathology, with particular emphasis on Multiple Sclerosis, dementia and depression.
Education & Career:
- Current appointment: Professor and Head of MRI, School of Psychology, Cardiff University.
- Previous roles and institutional affiliations have included collaborative posts across Europe and the UK, though full biographical dates are not given in the provided text.
Research Interests:
Prof Cercignani’s work exploits quantitative MRI—diffusion imaging, magnetisation-transfer imaging, and multi-parametric relaxometry—to map tissue microstructure in vivo. She integrates these data with EEG/MEG, TMS and behavioural paradigms to relate anatomy to function. A major strand investigates myelin density and axonal conduction velocity as determinants of cognitive and motor performance in health and disease. She has pioneered the use of VERDICT-MRI and diffusion-weighted MR spectroscopy to probe cellular and vascular micro-environment, and applies these tools to understand neuroinflammation, fatigue, and neurodegeneration.
Publication landscape:
Over the past five years her output (> 60 papers) has concentrated on three overlapping themes: (i) neuroimmune interactions—how peripheral inflammation and cytokine challenges remodel reward and punishment circuits; (ii) neurodegeneration and glymphatic dysfunction—early microstructural changes in Alzheimer’s disease, MS and ALS detected by diffusion and sodium MRI; and (iii) network-level plasticity—how cognitive reserve, sleep and memory reactivation alter structural connectivity.
Scientific Awards & Recognition:
- Continuous major-project funding from UKRI (MRC, EPSRC), EU-FP7/H2020, Wellcome Trust and industry partners.
- Invited keynote speaker at International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and Organisation for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM).
- Serves on editorial boards of NeuroImage, Human Brain Mapping and Multiple Sclerosis Journal.
Supervision & Team Leadership:
Prof Cercignani heads the Cardiff Neuroimaging Group, currently supervising 8 PhD students and 4 post-doctoral researchers working on projects spanning MR physics, computational modelling, and translational neurology. Recent major grants include a Wellcome Trust collaborative award on “Neuroimmune Imaging in Depression” and an MRC programme grant on “Quantitative Imaging of Myelin in MS”.
Laboratory & Core Facilities:
She directs the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC) 3 T MRI Physics programme, managing state-of-the-art Siemens Prisma and Connectom systems, and co-leads the low-field 64 mT UNITY consortium aimed at deploying portable neuroimaging in low- and middle-income settings.
