Entering the cranial vault: imaging the fetal brain with ultrasound

Ultrasound (US) imaging is one of the first steps in a continuum of pregnancy care. During the fetal period, the brain undergoes dramatic structural changes, many of which are informative of healthy maturation. The resolution of modern US machines enables us to observe and measure brain structures, as well as detect cerebral abnormalities in fetuses from as early as 18 weeks. Recent breakthroughs in machine learning techniques for image analysis introduce opportunities to  develop bespoke methods to track spatial and temporal patterns of fetal brain development. My work focuses on the design of appropriate data-driven techniques to extract developmental information from standard clinical US images of the brain.