Neuro-X seminar: Dr Bollmann - Reproducible Neuroimaging for Everyone – How Neurodesk uses software containers to make neuroimaging more accessible, portable and reproducible

Neuroimaging data analysis requires a diverse collection of bespoke command-line and graphical tools. Installing and maintaining a neuroimaging software setup is challenging and often results in un-reproducible environments. We developed NeuroDesk, a platform built on container technology for processing and analysing neuroimaging data with the aim to lower the barrier of using various neuroimaging software in a reproducible environment.
 
We developed a modular and open analysis environment consisting of a continuous integration system on Github to automatically build neuroimaging software containers based on community input. We also developed a toolset around software containers to make them easy to use. We provide all tools within a lightweight Linux desktop container accessible via a browser interface that runs on any operating system supporting Docker.
Our open-source project (https://www.neurodesk.org) enables researchers and clinicians to use various neuroimaging software on any operating system. 

We developed a scalable and interoperable way of running scientific tools on any compute platform accessible to researchers and clinicians. The benefits of this setup are an easy-to-use and reproducible environment for neuroimaging data analysis. NeuroDesk enables users to run a fully reproducible environment on cloud, on windows/mac or on a high-performance computing system and seamlessly transition between different hardware setups. 

To find out more ahead of the talk, please see our recent Nature Methods paper:

Renton, A. I., Dao, T. T., Johnstone, T., Civier, O., Sullivan, R. P., White, D. J., ... & Bollmann, S. (2024). Neurodesk: an accessible, flexible and portable data analysis environment for reproducible neuroimaging. Nature Methods, 1-5.



Please note that Dr Bollmann also organizes a Neurodesk Workshop in Zurich on June 3rd (see link and attached program).