Dr Laura Parkes (MPhys, MSc, PhD.) - personal details

With a background in both physics (MPhys Oxford, 1997) and neuroscience (MSc, UCL 1999) my research is focussed on developing novel methodology to study brain function. Following a PhD on quantitative measurements of cerebral blood flow (UCL, 2002), I moved to the Netherlands to complete postdoctoral research using fMRI and MEG. In 2005 I returned to the UK, first to the University of Liverpool and now as a lecturer at Manchester University. One principle area of reseach concerns mechanisms of brain plasticity following a New Investigators Award from the Medical Research Council in 2006. I continue to study the cerebrovascular system, and have developed quantitative measurements of cerebral blood flow and oxygen metabolism in response to neural activation. Applications in ageing and cerebral small vessel disease are ongoing, with an aim to understand mechanisms of cognitive decline and dementia.
 

Full member of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.
Full member of the Society for Neuroscience.

1997 – 2001 PhD at the Institute of Neurology, University College London.
                  ‘Measuring blood perfusion in the brain using arterial spin labelled MRI’.
1998 - 1999 MSc at University College London.
                  Neurological Science. Research project in visual psychophysics.
1993 - 1997 MPhys (Hons) 2:1 Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University.
                  Physics
 

I conduct research in the field of Neuroimaging.
I run the medical imaging module of the MSc course in physics and engineering applied to medicine and biology.

I run the medical imaging module on the MSc course in physics and engineering applied to medicine and biology.
I currently supervise a number of research students, including 6 PhD and 5 MSc students.