BrainWorks 2026 | The Brain Abnormality Workshop

Why BrainWorks?

Robust methods for real-world data

BrainWorks aims to advance computational neuroimaging and computational neuropathology methods that operate effectively in the presence of brain abnormalities. Many machine learning methods in neuroimaging were developed and validated using neurologically healthy cohorts, which can lead to reduced performance when anatomy, tissue integrity, or signal characteristics depart from normative assumptions.

BrainWorks creates a forum for pathology-aware, generalisable image computing methods that explicitly address tumors, acquired brain injuries, enlarged perivascular spaces, infection, diffuse pathology, and imaging artifacts. The workshop emphasizes both methodological innovation and careful analysis of failure modes in clinically realistic data.

Primary aims

Promote the development of robust and generalisable methods that explicitly account for abnormal anatomy, pathology-induced signal changes, and imaging artefacts.
Encourage cross-pathology methodological exchange, bridging traditionally siloed domains.
Foster integration between computational innovation and clinical interpretation, supporting downstream tasks such as diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment planning.
Support reproducibility and benchmarking through shared datasets, evaluation protocols, and challenge-based comparisons.

Call for papers

We invite submissions on all aspects of medical image computation and computer assisted interventions involving brains with abnormalities, from focal lesions to diffuse pathology and artifacts.

Methodological innovations and rigorous quantitative evaluations.
Publicly available datasets, benchmarks, and robustness studies.
Foundational, explainable, or uncertainty-aware approaches.
Work that supports diagnosis, prognosis, decision-making, and treatment planning.
Studies highlighting bias, limitations, failure cases, and negative results.

Submission instructions

Paper Submission

We invite submissions of original research papers. All submissions will undergo a double blind peer review process. Authors are encouraged to submit early, as decisions may be made on a rolling basis prior to the final submission deadline.

Formatting & Anonymization

Papers must be fully anonymized before submission. A paper that is non-compliant with the anonymization or other paper submission rules (e.g., paper length) will be desk rejected.

Dual Submission Policy

Submissions that have been previously published, or are currently under review at other venues, are not permitted. However, authors participating in MICCAI 2026 Challenges that do not produce their own proceedings (e.g., SELMA3D, TopBrain, DoseRAD2026, FOMO26) are welcome to submit their work to BrainWorks. If a BrainWorks submission precedes the release of challenge results, authors may update the final leaderboard standing or ranking in the camera-ready version to reflect the official challenge outcome, provided no other substantive changes to the results are made. Authors submitting work that is also submitted to a MICCAI 2026 Challenge are required to declare this at the time of submission.

Open Access & Patent Notice

An open-access version of all accepted papers from the MICCAI 2026 Satellite Event BrainWorks will be made available on the MICCAI Society website no earlier than one week before the first day of the conference. Authors intending to file patents are responsible for ensuring that all necessary filings are completed prior to this public release.

Important Dates

Submissions have now closed.
Initial decisions and reviews will be returned to authors by August 7th.
Final camera-ready submissions, including copyright forms, are due August 14th.
Final notification of acceptance: August 20th.

View preliminary program

Whole day thematic event encompassing AIMS-TBI and BraTS 2026.

Automated identification of Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury lesions (AIMS-TBI) 2026

The AIMS-TBI 2026 challenge aims to develop a lesion segmentation tool capable of handling immense heterogeneity among lesion types. This year AIMS-TBI includes multi-modal data for training, with segmentation performance being assessed on T1w images only.

Brain Tumor Segmentation (BraTS) 2026 Cluster of Challenges

The BraTS 2026 Cluster of challenges includes three segmentation challenges (Metastasis, Pediatrics and Generalizability), the BraTS Pathology and BraTS Inpainting challenges.

Organizing team

The BrainWorks Team

BrainWorks is organized by a cross-institutional team spanning early-, mid-, and senior-career researchers with expertise in neuroimaging, computer vision, machine learning, and clinical applications.

Organizing committee

Evelyn Deutscher, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Ujjwal Baid, Emory University

evelyn.deutscher@mcri.edu.au (Primary contact)

Advisory board

Spyridon Bakas, Indiana University School of Medicine
Emily Dennis, University of Utah
Matthew Pease, Indiana University School of Medicine

Program committee

Carla Pitarch-Abaigar, Indiana University, USA
Phoebe Imms, Queensland Institute for Medical Research Berghofer, Australia
Andrei Irimia, University of Southern California, USA
Frank Hillary, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Sanket Kachole, Indiana University, USA
Jayden You, Indiana University, USA
Siddhesh Thakur, Kingston University, USA
Akanimoh Adeleye, University of California, USA
Jana Lipkova, Harvard Medical School, USA
Dominic LaBella, Duke University Medical Center, USA
Nicolas Muenster, Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, Germany
Konstantinos Koukoutegos, Indiana University, USA
Paula Buzduga, Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, Germany
Shubham Innani, Indiana University, USA
Akis Linardos, University of Barcelona, Spain
Nazanin Maleki, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, USA
Dimosthenis Chrysochoou, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Zhifan Jiang, Children’s National Hospital, USA
Nishita Paruchuri, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, USA
Abhijeet Parida, Children’s National Hospital, USA
Tonmoy Hossain, Harvard Medical School, USA
Mark Olchanyi, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, USA
Astaraki Mehdi, Stokholm University, Sweden
Soumya Kundu, Kings College London, UK

FAQ

Who should submit?

Researchers and clinicians working on computational neuroimaging, neuropathology, biomarkers, segmentation, registration, classification, harmonization, multimodal fusion, robustness, and related topics in abnormal brain data.

Are negative results welcome?

Yes. BrainWorks explicitly welcomes studies that analyze limitations, failure cases, and gaps between benchmarks and real-world deployment.

Will proceedings be published?

Yes. The workshop plans proceedings in the MICCAI Satellite Events Joint Springer LNCS proceedings.

How is BrainWorks different from BraTS or AIMS-TBI?

BrainWorks is the broader scientific forum spanning multiple brain abnormalities and methodological questions, complementing task-specific challenge benchmarking efforts.