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Medicine & Health School of Biomedical Sciences

Neuroscience

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A student and clinician in a neuroscience lab

Neuroscience research groups within SBMS broadly engage with the full translational pathway of biomedical research in the brain and nervous system, from basic discovery at the bench to applied research spanning from AI-informed drug discovery to first-in-human clinical trials. This landscape offers extensive training opportunities through more than 15 collaborating research themes (aligned to the Neuroscience Hons program and HDR pathway), spanning from single-molecule science, to molecular, cellular and systems physiology and pharmacology, behavioural, electrophysiological and advanced imaging research modalities. SBMS Neuroscience is supported by the core capabilities of the ‘Translational Neuroscience Facility’ with a focus on physiological readout, including dedicated surgical and behavioural suites, viral vector and gene electrotransfer platforms and advanced multi-photon physiological imaging. This is complemented by facilitated access to MWAC facilities, including the KGLM light microscopy facility, BRIL instrumentation for intravital MRI / PET-CT animal imaging and spatially resolved brain multi-omics platforms for next-generation in situ cell-type mapping. SBMS neuroscience research and training is strongly supported by competitive external funding to address a wide range of neurological disorders and fundamental brain sciences. Themes within SBMS Neuroscience include DNA / RNA -based therapeutics directed at nerve regeneration with age and trauma, focal epilepsy, vision disorders, white-matter diseases (leukodystrophies). Translationally-focused research around sensorimotor disabilities include: neuropathic pain, hearing loss, touch sensation (proprioception) and peripheral neuropathies, control of breathing (sleep apnoea), blood pressure and stress responses, learning, memory and addiction brain circuit plasticity, neural cytoskeletal regulation and brain cell interaction, stroke and traumatic brain injury, and Parkinson’s Disease.

Research groups

Curious how cells are kept running like well-oiled machines, Vaishnavi Ananthanarayanan uses high resolution, live cell imaging to investigate cellular dynamics within the crowded environment inside mammalian cells. 

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Carrive Group: Brain, Blood Pressure and Stress

The research conducted in the Brain, Blood Pressure and Stress laboratory aims to understand how the brain controls the autonomic and cardiovascular changes associated with stress, emotions and hyperarousal.

Froehlich Group: CNS Gene Therapy Lab

Our aim is to advance the understanding of, and to develop targeted gene therapies for, neurodegenerative diseases of the central nervous system with a focus on the group of leukodystrophy white matters disorders. 

Yann Gambin is watching how certain proteins clump together, leading to cell death and Parkinson’s disease. Together with Emma Sierecki, he is using single-molecule approaches–to watch proteins working with each other–that are ten times faster than traditional approaches.

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Hardeman & Gunning Group: Cytoskeleton Therapeutics Research Unit (CTRU)

The CTRU studies the building blocks of cell architecture and develops therapeutic strategies based on drug-targeting these building blocks. Our focus is the actin cytoskeleton that is responsible for the internal scaffolds of cells, the generation and reaction to force exerted by the environment and the movement of cells throughout the body. 

Housley Group: Sensori-motor Physiology and Therapeutic Group

Broadly, our aim is to translate discoveries about transmembrane receptor and ion channel signal transduction, into new platforms for treatment of neurological disorders. Our research program focuses on neuroprotection and repair in sensori-motor pathways.

Kumar Group: Cardiorespiratory Neuroscience

Our lab investigates cellular and physiological mechanisms used by autonomic systems; cardiovascular, respiratory and glucoregulatory. Physiological reflexes (e.g. baroreflex, chemoreflex, glucose counter regulation) function to maintain homeostasis in the healthy state.

Moalem-Taylor Group: Neuroimmune Pain Research

The principal aim of our research is to understand the relationship between the nervous system and the immune system, with particular emphasis on how immune cells and their mediators affect chronic pain conditions, such as neuropathic pain, and to assess immunotherapeutic approaches. 

Morris Group: Environmental Determinants of Obesity

Our research addresses critical questions concerning how provision of a varied, energy rich diet can override the control mechanisms that otherwise maintain body weight, with a particular focus on the brain-gut axis and cognitive decline, using rodent models.  

Power Group: Neuroplasticity in Memory & Addiction

Our group examines how changes in neurons and their connections mediate learning. We focus on motivated learning which underlies addiction and associated behaviours. This work complements Psychology collaborators who investigate the behavioural effects of manipulating these circuits.

Emma Sierecki is mapping protein interactions to solve mysteries that have so far eluded researchers. Their strategy–combining cell-free protein expression with AlphaScreen and single molecule fluorescence spectroscopy–allows them to rapidly screen a huge number of protein binding partners.

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Vickery & Birznieks Group: Sensory Bionics and Motor Control

As humans, we use touch to feel, to communicate, to move, to explore the environment around us, and to protect us from danger. What may seem like instinctive reactions are in fact the result of a complex interplay between our brain, nerves and touch receptors in our skin.