Members

Dr. Anne Wheeler completed her PhD in the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto, where she focused on structural and functional imaging in the rodent brain, combining the mapping of brain networks with behavioural analysis. She joined the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) (Toronto, ON) for a postdoctoral fellowship where she employed magnetic resonance brain imaging (MRI) to investigate network-based neuroimaging biomarkers in psychiatric disorders. She then joined SickKids Hospital in 2015 as the new Catalyst Scholar in traumatic brain injury (TBI) research. Dr. Wheeler is currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Physiology, University of Toronto.

Behaviour and cognition are emergent properties of brain networks.

Dr. Wheeler’s research is focusing on using brain-wide structural and functional neuroimaging to examine these processes, how they go awry in disease states, and how network-based biomarkers can be used to inform prognosis and treatment response. Her research projects are describing how traumatic injury affects the developing brain using advanced MRI acquisition and processing. She is also using brain imaging in patient populations and mouse models to look for biomarkers of TBI in order to identify brain damage, inform prognosis and monitor which treatments work. MRI based biomarkers, especially those derived from recent advanced acquisition methods, are able to detect subtle injury induced microscopic alterations in the brain. Dr. Wheeler is particularly interested in psychiatric outcomes of TBI and how genes influence brain structure and interact with injury to predict outcome. She is applying advanced processing and network analysis methods with the goal of identifying biomarkers that can function in a personalized medicine approach. These neuroimaging biomarkers will be combined with blood-based biomarkers and validated in animal models.

Dr. Wheeler has received support from CIHR and a Young Investigator Grant from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (NARSAD).