Modelling stroke progression and treatment in the brain

Ischaemic stroke, the disease that occurs when a clot blocks a large blood vessel in the brain, causing brain tissue to die, remains a common cause of death and a leading cause of disability. Computational models of stroke development can help to determine the best treatment options, and to understand the specific factors that lead to different outcomes in different patient groups. We have been developing models of blood flow, oxygen transport, and fluid transport in the human brain for a number of years, and the goal is now to expand these models to simulate different population groups such that we can help clinicians to target treatments in a more focussed way.

As part of an EU-wide project (https://www.geminiproject.eu), a large consortium of groups across many different disciplines have been working to develop and to validate these models. As part of this PhD, we will move our existing models from population-averaged behaviour to individual behaviour through the inclusion of parameters such as age, sex, and medical history, to improve the predictive capability of these models. There will be extensive opportunities for collaboration across the consortium and also the opportunity to get involved with analysis of large clinical datasets and/or the construction of statistical models of outcome.