The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering awarded the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a Project Grant totaling $530,511 under the Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health (CFDA 93.286) Federal Grant Program. The purpose of this 4-year grant is to significantly enhance the Infant Brain Extraction and Analysis Toolbox (IBEAT) developed by the university in 2020. The key products and services to be delivered under this award include:
Developing novel deep learning-based computational tools for cerebellar tissue segmentation, atlas building, surface reconstruction, and parcellation to enable comprehensive analysis of the cerebellum during infant brain development.
Adding new cerebrum-related functionalities such as motion correction, subcortical segmentation, volumetric parcellation, and surface registration, as well as improving the robustness and accuracy of existing IBEAT modules.
Undertaking a comprehensive upgrade of IBEAT to improve usability, robustness, compatibility, code structure, and documentation, enabling broader adoption and application of the toolbox.
These enhancements to IBEAT are aimed at fully leveraging large-scale infant neuroimaging datasets to precisely chart dynamic early brain development and provide insights into neurodevelopmental disorders like autism.