# Segmenting Brain Structures for Neurological Disorders

> **NIH NIH R01** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2020 · $550,159

## Abstract

Abstract
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a flexible and powerful technology for quantifying the effects of many
conditions, including numerous neurological disorders, on human brain anatomy, connectivity, vasculature,
chemical composition, physiology and function. In the past 15 years, several open source tools have been
developed that accurately and automatically segment an array of brain structures. In this project, we seek the
resources to extend this set to enable the quantification of neuroanatomical changes that are critical to
diagnosing, staging and assessing the efficacy of potential therapeutic interventions in diseases such as
Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. This includes the acquisition of datasets to enable manual labeling of structures
of interest, the generation of documentation, tutorials, unit tests, regression tests and system tests to harden
the tools and make them usable by clinicians and neuroscientists, and finally the distribution and support of the
data, manual labelings and tools to the more than 32,000 researchers that use FreeSurfer through our existing
open source mechanism.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9821216
- **Project number:** 5R01NS105820-02
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Bruce Fischl
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $550,159
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-12-01 → 2023-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9821216

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9821216, Segmenting Brain Structures for Neurological Disorders (5R01NS105820-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9821216. Licensed CC0.

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