The Computational Brain Anatomy (CoBrA) Laboratory is located at the Cerebral Imaging Centre at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute (Verdun, QC, Canada; affiliated with McGill University). Our laboratory is interested the anatomy of the brain and how it matures through adolescence, how it stays healthy through the normal ageing process, and how alterations in brain anatomy are related to neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia.

The CoBrA Lab uses and develops sophisticated computational neuroanatomy techniques that are able to automatically parse the geometric complexity of brain anatomy.

The members of the group come from diverse backgrounds, including neuroscientists, computer scientists, engineers, and physicists all working towards a common goal of improving our understanding of the structure-function relationships of the brain through health and illness.

We publicly disseminate much of the algorithmic and atlas work that we do in an effort to promote open and reproducible science.

Mallar Chakravarty, PhD, received his Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo and his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from McGill University. He went on to do postdoctoral fellowships in Aarhus, Denmark and jointly at the Rotman Research Institute and at the Mouse Imaging Centre (MICe) and the Hospital Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. Between fellowships, Dr. Chakravarty worked at the Allen Institute for Brain Science (Seatte, WA, USA).

1. Fonds de Recherche Santé Québec – Young Investigator Award Junior 1
2. Sertuener Award for best scientific work in pain research in Germany (for work in Sprenger et al. Brain 2012; senior author)

Daniel Gallino
Gabriel A. Devenyi, Ph.D.
Jake Shenker
Jane Su
Julie Winterburn
Matt Park
Nikhil Bhagwat
Raihaan Patel
Roberto S.C. Amaral
Saashi Bedford
Alyssa Salaciak
Stefanie Kübel
Vincent Kong
Vivian Lynn

Key publications

1. Aristotle N. Voineskos*, Julie Winterburn*, Daniel Felsky, Jon Pipitone, Tarek K. Rajji, Benoit H. Mulsant, M. Mallar Chakravarty. Hippocampal (subfield) volume and shape in relation to cognitive performance across the adult lifespan. Human Brain Mapping, in press.

2. M. Mallar Chakravarty, Judith L. Rapoport, Jay N. Giedd, Armin Raznahan, Philip Shaw, D. Louis Collins, Jason P. Lerch*, and Nitin Gogtay*. Striatal shape abnormalities as a novel neurodevelopmental endophenotype in schizophrenia: a longitudinal study. Human Brain Mapping, 36(4):1458-1469, 2015.

3. Jon Pipitone, Min Tae Park, Julie L. Winterburn, Tristram A. Lett, Jason P. Lerch, Jens C. Pruessner, Martin Lepage, Aristotle N. Voineskos, M. Mallar Chakravarty and the Alzheimer’s Disease NeuroImaging Initiative. Multi-atlas segmentation of the whole hippocampus and subfields using multiple automatically generated templates. NeuroImage, 101(1 November):494-512, 2014.

4. Amy C. Janes, Min Tae Park, Stacey Farmer, and M. Mallar Chakravarty. Striatal morphology is associated with tobacco cigarette craving. Neuropsychopharmacology, 40(2): 406-411, 2015.

5. Philip Shaw, Pietro De Rossi, Bethany Watson, Amy Wharton, Deanna Greenstein, Armin Raznahan, Wendy Sharp, Jason P. Lerch, and M. Mallar Chakravarty. Mapping the development of the basal ganglia in children with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 53(7):780—9, 2014.

6. Min Tae M. Park, Jon Pipitone, Larry Baer, Julie L. Winterburn, Yashvi Shah, Sofia Chavez, Mark M. Schira, Nancy J. Lobaugh, Jason P. Lerch, Aristotle N. Voineskos, and M. Mallar Chakravarty. Derivation of high-resolution MRI atlases of the human cerebellum at 3T and segmentation using multiple automatically generated templates NeuroImage, 95(15 July 2014):217-231, 2014.

7. Armin Raznahan, Philip W. Shaw, Jason P. Lerch, Liv Clasen, Dede Greenstein, Rebecca Berman, Jon Pipitone, M. Mallar Chakravarty*, and Jay N. Giedd*. Longitudinal four-dimensional mapping of subcortical anatomy in human development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 111(4):1592—7, 2014.

8. Julie L. Winterburn, Jens Pruessner, Sofia Chavez, Mark Schira, Nancy J. Lobaugh, Aristotle N. Voineskos, and M. Mallar Chakravarty. A novel in vivo atlas of the human hippocampal subfields using high-resolution 3T magnetic resonance imaging. NeuroImage. 74(1 July 2013):254—65, 2013.

9. M. Mallar Chakravarty, Patrick Steadman, Matthijs C. van Eede, Rebecca D. Calcott, Victoria Gu, Philip Shaw, Armin Raznahan, D. Louis Collins, and Jason P. Lerch. Performing label-fusion based segmentation using multiple automatically generated templates. Human Brain Mapping, 34(10):2635—54, 2013.

10. Till Sprenger, Christian L. Seifert, Michael Valet, Anna P. Andreou, Annette Foerschler, Claus Zimmer, D. Louis Collins, Peter J. Goadsby, Thomas R. Tölle, and M. Mallar Chakravarty. Assessing the risk of thalamic pain by MRI lesion mapping. Brain. 135(Pt 8): 2536—45, 2012.

11. Michael J. Hawrylycz, Ed S. Lein, Angela L. Guillozet-Bongaarts, Elaine H. Shen, Lydia Ng, Jeremy A. Miller, Louie N. van de Lagemaat, Kimberly A. Smith, Amanda Ebbert, Zackery L. Riley, Chris Abajian, Christian F. Beckmann, Amy Bernard, Darren Bertagnolli, Andrew F. Boe, Preston M. Cartagena, M. Mallar Chakravarty, Mike Chapin, Jimmy Chong, Rachel A. Dalley, Barry David Daly, Chinh Dang, Suvro Datta, Nick Dee, Tim A. Dolbeare, Vance Faber, David Feng, David R Fowler, Jeff Goldy, Benjamin W. Gregor, Zeb Haradon, David R. Haynor, John G. Hohmann, Steve Horvath, Robert E. Howard, Andreas Jeromin, Jayson M. Jochim, Marty Kinnunen, Christopher Lau, Evan T. Lazarz, Changkyu Lee, Tracy A. Lemon, Ling Li, Yang Li, John A. Morris, Caroline C. Overly, Patrick D. Parker, Sheana E. Parry, Melissa Reding, Joshua J. Royall, Jay Schulkin, Pedro Adolfo Sequeira, Clifford R. Slaughterbeck, Simon C. Smith, Andy J. Sodt, Susan M. Sunkin, Beryl E. Swanson, Marquis P. Vawter, Derric Williams, Paul Wohnoutka, H. Ronald Zielke, Daniel H. Geschwind, Patrick R. Hof, Stephen M. Smith, Christof Koch, Seth G.N. Grant, Allan R. Jones. An Anatomically Comprehensive Atlas of the Adult Human Brain Transcriptome. Nature. 489 (7416): 391-9, 2012.

12. M. Mallar Chakravarty, Daniel Felsky, Maria Tampakeras, Jason P. Lerch, Benoit H. Mulsant, James L. Kennedy, and Aristotle N. Voineskos. DISC1 and striatal volume: a potential risk phenotype for mental illness. Frontiers in Neuropsychiatric Imaging and Stimulation. 3(57): 10.3389/fpsyt.2012.00057, 2012.