Translational Research in NeuroImaging

Nanyin Zhang PhD at the Center for Comparative NeuroImaging (CCNI) along with Douglas Ziedonis, MD, MPH made the initial visit that established research collaborations with Dr. LI Tao at the West China Hospital in Sichuan University, including neuroimaging studies of first-break psychosis. Dr. Li's research interest focuses on schizophrenia. In her lab, they have scanned approximately 500 human subjects including un-medicated patients with schizophrenia, subjects with 6-12 month post-medication follow-up, first-level relatives of schizophrenia patients, and the matched controls. Dr. Zhang's expertise in analyzing fMRI and functional connectivity and Dr. Ziedonis’ clinical research expertise in schizophrenia are contributing to this collaborative study. The findings are being submitted for publication. As part of this collaboration, a graduate student from Dr. Li's lab visited the CCNI to study data processing and learn with Drs. Nanyin Zhang and Jean King. Based on the initial collaborative project, Drs. Zhang and Ziedonis have joined with Dr. Li and her team to submit a NIDA / China NSF research grant proposal to expand this program of research.