Forget-Me-Not

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Forget-Me-Not: an infant post-mortem imaging study, part of the developing Human Connectome Project

  • IRAS ID

    253142

  • Contact name

    Rebeccah Slater

  • Contact email

    rebeccah.slater@ox.ac.uk

  • Research summary

    Research Summary:
    Forget-Me-Not: an infant post-mortem imaging research database project, part of the developing Human Connectome Project.

    Summary of Results:
    From September 2019-March 2023, two infants were scanned. Research was halted during the pandemic; following re-start, the required resource for continuing the project was unavailable. This project gave the opportunity to obtain extraordinarily detailed images of the brain, with the possibility of unprecedented insight into how the structure and connections in the brain develop in early life. This project also improved our technical knowledge by providing information about which settings can be used to obtain the best MRI scans possible in brain tissue which has not been fixed in any way in infants who have recently died. The detail that we can see in the images obtained in this research project could be used to lead onto further research to explore how suitable MRI scanning may be as an alternative to traditional (invasive) autopsy to explore causes of death in infants. Results from this project are presented in two peer-reviewed publications, and demonstrate that high-quality, high-resolution post-mortem data of unfixed tissue can be acquired to explore the developing human brain.

  • REC name

    South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    19/SC/0154

  • Date of REC Opinion

    4 Jun 2019

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion