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UCD Centre for Neuroscience

UCD Centre for Neuroscience

 

The University College Dublin (UCD) Centre for Neuroscience brings together fundamental and clinical neuroscientists working across a wide range of research interests from the normal function of the nervous system to neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disease.  The Principal Investigators are drawn particularly from UCD Conway Institute, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science (SBBS), UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science (SMMS), St Vincent’s University Hospital (SVUH) and Mater Misericordiae University Hospital (MMUH), each with a long tradition of research in neuroscience.  The Centre accommodates a number of Investigator groupings that work in collaboration toward shared research questions, in particular, on Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, movement disorders, model organisms and neurotherapeutics.

 

Developing advanced neurotherapeutics

UCD Centre for Neuroscience is very much aligned with the commitment of UCD to conduct excellent research addressing challenges of global significance.  The University is dedicated to supporting the research programmes of scale which are required to deliver real knowledge progress and global impact economically, socially and culturally.  The challenge in the neuroscience field cannot be overstated.  Treatments for diseases of brain function are significantly behind other major disease areas with a huge gap between treatment availability and demand. By way of example, the treatments for mental illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and depression do not adequately treat many if not most patients and have not altered mechanistically in over 40 years. The societal, financial and personal costs due to suboptimal treatment of these brain disorders are astronomical and there is a huge unmet clinical need for improved neurotherapies.

The lack of progress in this field is a reflection of the complexity of the brain and our poor knowledge of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases. The UCD Centre for Neuroscience has as its mission to advance our understanding of the normal and diseased nervous system and to spearhead the development of novel treatments to address these considerable challenges and alleviate patient suffering.