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Cambridge Networks Network

 

Research

My name is Petra Vértes and I am an MRC fellow in Bioinformatics at the Brain Mapping Unit (BMU) at Cambridge University.

My work builds on methods and concepts from physics and bioinformatics and applies them to fundamental problems in neuroscience. In particular, I am interested in the structure-function relationship in brain networks, from the microscopic scale of neurons to the large-scale connectivity of brain regions, in both health and disease. Insights into these questions are not only fascinating in their own right, but have important implications for our understanding and therapeutic approaches to cognitive impairments associated with psychiatric disorders, brain injury and ageing.

I received a masters degree in theoretical physics and a PhD in artificial neural networks from the University of Cambridge, UK. I am also one of the co-founders and organizers of the Cambridge Networks Network (CNN). In 2014 I was awarded an MRC fellowship in Bioinformatics. In 2016, I was named to Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers for my work as part of the NSPN consortium, merging insights from brain imaging with gene expression data from the Allen Brain Atlas.

Publications

Key publications: 

Whitaker KJ*, Vértes PE*, Romero-Garcia R, Váša F, Moutoussis M, Prabhu G, Weiskopf N, Callaghan MF, Wagstyl K, Rittman T, Tait R, Ooi C, Suckling J, Inkster B, Fonagy P, Dolan RJ, Jones PB, Goodyer IM, Bullmore ET, NSPN Consortium
Adolescence is associated with genomically patterned consolidation of the hubs of the human brain connectome.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA) 2016, 113 (32), 9105-9110

Vértes PE, Rittman T, Whitaker KJ, Romero-Garcia R, Váša F, Kitzbichler MG, Wagstyl K, Fonagy P, Dolan RJ, Jones PB, Goodyer IM, Bullmore ET, NSPN Consortium
Gene transcription profiles associated with inter-modular hubs and connection distance in human functional magnetic resonance imaging networks.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2016, 371, 20150362.

Vértes PE and Bullmore ET
Annual Research Review: Growth connectomics–the organization and reorganization of brain networks during normal and abnormal development.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 2014.

Vértes PE, Alexander-Bloch A and Bullmore ET
Generative models of rich clubs in Hebbian neuronal networks and large-scale human brain networks.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2014.

Nicosia V*, Vértes PE*, Schafer WR, Latora V, Bullmore ET
(* These authors contributed equally to the work)
Metamorphosis as a phase transition in the economically modeled growth of a cellular nervous system.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA), 2013.

Towlson EK, Vértes PE, Schafer WR, Ahnert S and Bullmore ET
The rich club of the C. elegans neuronal connectome.
J Neurosci,  2013.

Vértes PE, Alexander-Bloch A, Gogtay N, Giedd J, Rapoport J, and Bullmore ET
Simple models of human brain functional networks.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA), 2012.

MRC Fellow in Bioinformatics
CNN Organizer
Dr Petra E Vertes
Not available for consultancy

Affiliations

Classifications: 
Person keywords: 
fMRI
Neural Networks
Temporal Networks
Brain development
Schizophrenia
C. elegans
Spatial Networks
Brain Networks