New professor of integrative imaging to increase our knowledge about the brain
Brian Kjærgaard Hansen has a background in physics and biomedical technology, and on 1 December, he joined the Department of Clinical Medicine and the Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience as a professor.
Brian Kjærgaard Hansen is a new professor of integrative brain imaging. The field bridges physics and neurobiology and focuses on developing and applying MRI scanning to study the brain.
Brian Kjærgaard Hansen is particularly interested in understanding how the microstructure of the brain changes during sleep and while under anaesthesia. To this end, he studies the cluster of nerve cells (Locus Coeruleus, LC) in the brainstem that has a strong impact on sleep, brain plasticity and blood supply.
"The aim of my research is to develop MRI techniques we can use to learn more about the brain and brain diseases. For example, we know that the LC breaks down early in Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer’s disease, but we don't know if the LC breaks down because of the disease or if the disease occurs because the LC breaks down. We hope to find an answer, and by doing so, contribute to our understanding of some of the most degenerative of diseases," he says.
The new professor is also part of an effort to increase the use of MRI scans to visualise teeth, jawbones and the lower part of the head in collaboration with Professor Rubens Spin-Neto from the Department of Dentistry and Oral Health at Aarhus University.
Contact
Professor Brian Kjærgaard Hansen
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine – Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience (CFIN)
Telephone: +45 42 44 65 12
Email: brian@cfin.au.dk