PIMS-IAM Distinguished Colloquium: Thomas Hillen

The human brain has a complex geometric structure consisting of white and gray matter, blood vessels, ventricles, skull etc. It forms a highly anisotropic medium. Glioma in the brain are known to invade along white matter tracks and along other brain structures. Using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) it is now possible to obtain directional information of the brain geometry. In my talk I will show how this DTI information can be used to parametrize a fully anisotropic diffusion equation for glioma spread. We validate the model on clinical data of glioma patients and discuss the future use in treatment design. (joint work with A. Swan, K.J. Painter, C. Surulescu, C. Engwer, M. Knappitsch, A. Murtha).