Measuring our impact

Built from one or more representations of the brain, atlases use sophisticated indexing schemes and nomenclature systems to describe brain structure and function. Atlases can help us answer questions such as: Where is a given structure relative to other structures? What are the shapes and characteristics of various structures? How does an individual brain compare to the average size/shape/connectivity? By integrating data from multiple sources, an atlas enables comparisons like these across individuals, brain states, and even species.

LONI’s Image and Data Archive (IDA) is a secure data archiving system, currently housing data from more than 30,000 subjects. The IDA uses a robust infrastructure to provide researchers with a flexible and simple interface for de-identifying, searching, retrieving, converting, and disseminating their biomedical data. With thousands of investigators across the globe and more than 21 million data downloads to data, the IDA guarantees reliability with a fault-tolerant network comprising multiple switches, routers, and Internet connections to prevent system failure.

Our most popular program, LONI Pipeline, is a free workflow application for neuroimaging researchers. We also provide additional software to aid scientists in de-identifying, processing, analyzing, and displaying imaging data.

We offer regular seminars, workshops, and courses on advanced imaging and informatics, and welcome visiting scientists to LONI for long-term training. Several online educational resources, including our Big Data to Knowledge Training Coordinating Center, help biomedical researchers develop skills to work with new technology.

LONI provides access to its research protocols, giving other investigators a validated set of methods for analyzing brain imaging data. Dissemination of standard protocols enables more effective communication and standardization of datasets between research groups.