Professor Gary Egan

BSc (Hons) PhD (Melb) MBA (Mon)

Neuroimaging

Principal Research Fellow
Group Leader, Neuroimaging Group
Laboratory Head, Neuroimaging Laboratory

Contact Details

Email:

gary.egan@florey.edu.au

Phone:

+61 (0)3 8344 1938

Fax:

+61 (0)3 9347 0446

Gary Egan is a Principal Research Fellow at the Howard Florey Institute, University of Melbourne and Head of the Neuroimaging and Neuroinformatics Laboratory in the Centre for Neuroscience, University of Melbourne. He completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne (1989) and a post-doctoral fellowship at the European Centre for Particle Physics research (CERN), Geneva in the field of particle physics. In 1990 he was appointed Senior Scientist to establish the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Centre, Austin Hospital, Melbourne, and initiated and led the brain mapping research program based on PET activation studies and other quantitative measures of brain function.

In 1998 he joined the Howard Florey Institute to establish a small animal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy facility. As Head of the Neuroimaging Group at the Howard Florey Institute, Prof Egan leads a multi-disciplinary team of 25 researchers and students undertaking MR imaging research.

Research Interests

Currently, Prof Egan’s research is focused on development of novel neuroimaging data analysis and modelling methods, creation and management of neuroimaging databases (neuroinformatics), and on neuroimaging research in humans and small animals. The main biomedical research programs within the group are MR imaging of small animal models of human diseases including multiple sclerosis, Huntington’s disease and epilepsy, and human imaging studies in these diseases.

Prof Egan is currently developing a $1 million ARC-funded computing facility for online storage of large MR image sets, involving multiple nodes at the University of Melbourne (primary) and the University of Queensland (secondary) and the University of NSW (secondary). Currently, in collaboration with Silicon Graphics Inc, Prof Egan and colleagues are developing software tools for the archiving, retrieval and analysis of MR images.

Since joining the Howard Florey Institute, Prof Egan has developed local human MRI research collaborations with the Royal Children’s Hospital, the Brain Research Institute, and the Mental Health Research Institute. International brain imaging research programs have been established in collaboration with the Research Imaging Centre, San Antonio, Texas involving neuroimaging studies of human physiology, with the Functional Imaging Centre, Georgetown University, Washington D.C. involving neuroimaging studies of human autonomic function, involving neuroimaging studies of auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia.

Laboratory Techniques

Additional Information

Recently, expansion of a small animal high field imaging facility has been possible as part of the National Imaging Facility (NIF) funded by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). The facility will provide researchers with access to the infrastructure and networks necessary to undertake world-class imaging research. Another step toward enhancing Australian neuroinformatics research has been made through establishment of a Planning Committee for Australian membership of the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF), an international organisation founded in 2005 to enhance international neuroscience research collaboration, on the recommendations of the OECD Working Group on Neuroinformatics.    

Publications & Articles

Please see PubMed.

J.B Poline, S. Strother, G. Dehaene-Lambertz, G.F. Egan, J. Lancaster, “Motivation and synthesis of the FIAC experiment: The reproducibility of fMRI results across expert analyses”, Human Brain Mapping, 27 (2006) 351-359.

N.B. Walters, S. Eickhoff, A. Schleicher, K. Zilles, K. Amunts, G. Egan, J.D.G. Watson, “Observer independent analysis of high-resolution MR images of the human cerebral cortex: in vivo delineation of cortical areas”, Human Brain Mapping (2006)  [JIF 6.06]

G.F. Egan, J. Johnson, M. Farrell, R. McAllen, F. Zamarripa, M.J. McKinley, J. Lancaster, D. Denton, P. Fox, “Cortical, thalamic and hypothalamic responses to cooling and warming the skin in awake humans: A PET study”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 102 (2005) 5262-5267 [IF 10.27]

S. Eickhoff, N. Walters, A. Schleicher, G.F. Egan, K. Zilles, J. Watson, K. Amunts, “High resolution MRI reflects myelo- and cytoarchitecture of human cerebral cortex”, Human Brain Mapping 24 (2005) 206-215 [IF 6.06]

K. Podzebenko, G.F. Egan, J.D.G. Watson, “Real and imaginary rotary motion processing: functional parcellation of the human parietal lobe revealed by fMRI”, J. Cognitive Neuroscience, 17 (2005) 24-36. [IF 5.07]

G. Egan, T. Silk, F. Zamarripa, J. Williams, P. Federico, R. Cunnington, L. Carabott, J. Blair-West, R. Shade, M. McKinley, M. Farrell, J. Lancaster, G. Jackson, P. Fox, D. Denton, "Neural correlates of the emergence of consciousness of thirst", Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 100 (2003) 15241-15246. [IF 10.27]

N. Walters, G.F. Egan, M. Kean, M. Jenkinson, J. Kril, J.D.G. Watson, “In vivo identification of human cortical areas using high resolution MRI: An approach to structure-function correlation”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 100 (2003) 2981-2986. [IF 10.27]

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