The OPTIMISE data project: toward improving multiple sclerosis treatment

Abstract

BIOGRAPHY Paul Matthews speaks to Ellen Clarke, Commissioning Editor: Paul Matthews, OBE, MD, DPhil, FRCP, FMedSci is Head of the new Division of Brain Sciences at Imperial College, London. He was the founding Director of two leading research imaging centers, the University of Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB) and of GlaxoSmithKline's Clinical Imaging Centre. From 2005 to 2014 he was Vice President of GlaxoSmithKline Medicines Discovery and Development. Professor Matthews’ research has extended applications of advanced imaging methods to answer a new spectrum of clinical research questions. He worked with Oxford colleagues in applications developments for advanced structural and functional brain imaging incorporated into the open access FSL software distributed by the FMRIB Centre, now one of the two most widely available image analysis software ‘toolboxes’ worldwide. While at Imperial and GSK, his group piloted approaches extending these methods for the first controlled, prospectively designed imaging genetics studies. He has been Chair of the Imaging Working Group for UK Biobank over the last 5 years, which is pioneering an ambitious program for very large population imaging as part of the UK Biobank. MRI scanning of the brain, heart and body, along with DEXA and 3D carotid ultrasound, was initiated in an imaging center at UK Biobank's Cheadle site in May 2014. A focus has been to address the challenge of neurodegeneration in multiple sclerosis and enhancing intrinsic brain repair and plasticity for functional recovery. More recent collaborative work with Imanova Ltd builds on studies of the genetics and pharmacology of the latest generation of PET microglial imaging agents to relate microglial activation and neurodegeneration in vivo. Professor Matthews received an OBE in 2008 for services to neuroscience. He was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2014.