The UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology is an institute within the Faculty of Brain Sciences of University College London (UCL) and is located in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. Together with the

National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (informally the National Hospital or Queen Square) is a neurological hospital in Queen Square, London. It is part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It was the f ...

, an adjacent facility with which it cooperates closely, the institute forms a major centre for teaching, training and research in neurology and allied clinical and basic neurosciences. The institute has a staff of around 710 and 500 graduate students, an annual turnover of £81million and occupies around 12,000 sq m of laboratory and office space. Four of the 12 most highly cited authors in neuroscience and behaviour in the world are currently based at the institute. The institute conducts research into a wide range of neurological diseases, including

movement disorders Movement disorder refers to any clinical syndrome with either an excess of movement or a paucity of voluntary and involuntary movements, unrelated to weakness or spasticity. Movement disorders are synonymous with basal ganglia or extrapyramidal d ...

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...

brain cancer A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and secondar ...

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

and

brain injury An injury is any physiological damage to living tissue caused by immediate physical stress. An injury can occur intentionally or unintentionally and may be caused by blunt trauma, penetrating trauma, burning, toxic exposure, asphyxiation, or o ...

muscle Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscl ...

and

nerve A nerve is an enclosed, cable-like bundle of nerve fibers (called axons) in the peripheral nervous system. A nerve transmits electrical impulses. It is the basic unit of the peripheral nervous system. A nerve provides a common pathway for the e ...

disorders,

cognitive dysfunction Cognitive disorders (CDs), also known as neurocognitive disorders (NCDs), are a category of mental health disorders that primarily affect cognitive abilities including learning, memory, perception, and problem solving. Neurocognitive disorders in ...

and

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

. It forms a key part of

UCL Neuroscience UCL Neuroscience is a research domain that encompasses the breadth of neuroscience research activity across University College London, University College London's (UCL) School of Life and Medical Sciences. The domain was established in January 20 ...

History

The Institute of Neurology was established in 1950. It merged with UCL in 1997, becoming the UCL Institute of Neurology. The institute is centred at Queen Square House, a concrete tower in the north-east corner of

Queen Square, London Queen Square is a garden square in the Bloomsbury district of central London. Many of its buildings are associated with medicine, particularly neurology. Construction Queen Square was originally constructed between 1716 and 1725. It was forme ...

that opened in 1971. Due to expansion, some of the institute's departments and activities are now based in numerous locations in Queen Square and surrounding parts of

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

. The UCL Institute of Neurology was rebranded to UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology in September, 2018.

Departments

The institute currently holds 578 active research projects, totalling £262m. Annual turnover is £80million. In the 2008

Research Assessment Exercise The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) was an exercise undertaken approximately every five years on behalf of the four UK higher education funding councils ( HEFCE, SHEFC, HEFCW, DELNI) to evaluate the quality of research undertaken by British h ...

almost 100 staff were submitted for evaluation and 70% of research was deemed to be internationally competitive or world leading. Submitted papers received an average citation rate of 40 per paper. The most recent research assessment exercise, REF2014, showed that the institute, as part of the Faculty of Brain Sciences, is the first rated UK institution for neuroscience research output The institute is home to the following research departments and centres * Department of Brain Repair &

Rehabilitation Rehabilitation or Rehab may refer to: Health * Rehabilitation (neuropsychology), therapy to regain or improve neurocognitive function that has been lost or diminished * Rehabilitation (wildlife), treatment of injured wildlife so they can be retur ...

* Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy * Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences ** Ataxia Centre ** Movement Disorders Centre ** Queen Square Brain Bank ** Reta Lila Weston Institute ** Sara Koe PSP Centre ** Unit of Functional Neurosurgery * Department of

Neurodegenerative Disease A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Such neuronal damage may ultimately involve cell death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic ...

** Dementia Research Centre **

Huntington's Disease Huntington's disease (HD), also known as Huntington's chorea, is a neurodegenerative disease that is mostly inherited. The earliest symptoms are often subtle problems with mood or mental abilities. A general lack of coordination and an unst ...

Centre * Department of

Neuroinflammation Neuroinflammation is inflammation of the nervous tissue. It may be initiated in response to a variety of cues, including infection, traumatic brain injury,Ebert SE, Jensen P, Ozenne B, Armand S, Svarer C, Stenbaek DS ''et al.'' Molecular imaging of ...

** Queen Square Multiple Sclerosis Centre * Department of Neuromuscular Disease ** MRC Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases ** Alzheimer's Research UK Drug Discovery Institute (ARUK-DDI) * UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL *

Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging The 'Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging'' at University College London is a world-leading interdisciplinary centre for neuroimaging research based in London, United Kingdom. Researchers at the Centre use expertise to investigate how the hum ...

The institute also has active collaborative research programmes with the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neurology Centre and the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour.

Notable research findings

In November 2002, a team of researchers at the institute led by Professor John Collinge published the results of a study which showed that the number of cases of CJD caused by the consumption of

BSE BSE may refer to: Medicine * Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease, a neurodegenerative disease of cattle * Breast self-examination Stock exchanges * Bahrain Stock Exchange, Bahrain * Baku Stock Exchange, Azerbaijan * B ...

-infected beef may have been higher than previously calculated and that BSE, in addition to causing

variant CJD Variant may refer to: In arts and entertainment * ''Variant'' (magazine), a former British cultural magazine * Variant cover, an issue of comic books with varying cover art * ''Variant'' (novel), a novel by Robison Wells * " The Variant", 2021 e ...

(vCJD), may also have caused some cases of "sporadic" CJD. In February 2004, a team of researchers at the institute led by Tania Singer published research showing that it is possible for one human to feel another's pain and that the same regions of the brain are activated in the empathizer and the empathisee. In July 2005, a team of researchers at the institute led by Davina Bristow published the results of research funded by the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

in ''Current Biology'' which demonstrated that parts of the human brain are temporarily "switched off" when blinking. In September 2005, a team of researchers at the institute led by Victor Tybulewicz at the National Institute for Medical Research and Professor Elizabeth Fisher from the institute published the results of a study in which they had been able to introduce most of a human chromosome into mice, producing the most successful recreation of

Down's syndrome Down syndrome or Down's syndrome, also known as trisomy 21, is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. It is usually associated with physical growth delays, mild to moderate intellectual disa ...

to date. In August 2007, a team of researchers at the institute led by Henrik Ehrsson published research in ''Science'' which was the first to describe how it is possible to use cameras to trick the human brain into thinking that a person is elsewhere in a room than they really are. In February 2011, a team of researchers at the institute led by Nick Wood published the results of a genetic study which had identified five new genes linked to

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

. In September 2015, Prof

Sarah Tabrizi Sarah Joanna Tabrizi FMedSci is a British neurology, neurologist and neuroscientist in the field of neurodegeneration, particularly Huntington's disease. She is a Professor and Joint Head of the Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the UC ...

began the first human trial of a 'gene silencing'

antisense oligonucleotide Oligonucleotides are short DNA or RNA molecules, oligomers, that have a wide range of applications in genetic testing, research, and forensics. Commonly made in the laboratory by solid-phase chemical synthesis, these small bits of nucleic acids c ...

drug, IONIS-HTT_Rx, for the

neurodegenerative A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Such neuronal damage may ultimately involve cell death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic ...

disease

Huntington's disease Huntington's disease (HD), also known as Huntington's chorea, is a neurodegenerative disease that is mostly inherited. The earliest symptoms are often subtle problems with mood or mental abilities. A general lack of coordination and an unst ...

at the institute's Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neurology Centre.

Notable researchers

Nobel Laureates

James Rothman James Edward Rothman (born November 3, 1950) is an American biochemist. He is the Fergus F. Wallace Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Yale University, the Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology at Yale School of Medicine, and the Director ...

(Dept of Clinical & Experimental Epilepsy)

Fellows of the Royal Society

Gillian Bates Gillian Patricia Bates (born 19 May 1956) FMedSci FRS is a British biologist. She is distinguished for her research into the molecular basis of Huntington's disease and in 1998 was awarded the GlaxoSmithKline Prize as a co-discoverer of the cau ...

(Sobell Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders) *

John Collinge John Gregory Collinge (born 10 May 1939) is a former New Zealand lawyer, politician and diplomat. His former roles include president of the New Zealand National Party and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. Early life Collinge was born in th ...

(Dept of Neurodegenerative Disease) * Raymond Dolan (Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging) * John Hardy (Dept of Molecular Neuroscience) *

Dimitri Kullmann Dimitri Michael Kullmann (born 1958) is a professor of neurology at the UCL Institute of Neurology, University College London (UCL), and leads the synaptopathies initiative funded by the Wellcome Trust. Kullmann is a member of the Queen Squar ...

(Dept Clinical & Experimental Epilepsy) * Geoffrey Raisman (Spinal Repair Unit) *

Elizabeth Warrington Elizabeth Kerr Warrington FRS (born 1931) is a British neuropsychologist specialised in the study of dementia. She holds a PhD in Psychology visual processing and is now an emeritus professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University Coll ...

(Emeritus, Dementia Research Centre)

Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences

W. Ian McDonald William Ian McDonald (15 March 1933 – 13 December 2006) was a New Zealand neurologist and academic. Having taught and practiced in New Zealand and the United States, he was Professor of Neurology at the Institute of Neurology of the University o ...

* John S. Duncan (Dept of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy) * Elizabeth Fisher (Dept of Neurodegenerative Disease) *

Nick Fox Nick may refer to: * Nick (given name) * A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat * British slang for being arrested * British slang for a police station * British slang for stealing * Short for nickname Pla ...

(Dementia Research Centre) *

(Dept of Clinical & Experimental Epilepsy) * Andrew Lees (Molecular Neuroscience) * Roger Lemon (Sobell Dept of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders) * David Miller (Dept of Neuroinflammation) *

Cathy Price Catherine J. "Cathy" Price is a British neuroscientist and academic. She is a professor of cognitive neuroscience and director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London. Her overarching research goal is to prov ...

(Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging) * Martin Rossor (Dementia Research Centre) * John Rothwell (Sobell Dept of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders) * Alan Thompson (Dept of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation) *

(Huntington's Disease Centre)

Members of Academia Europaea

(Dept of Clinical & Experimental Epilepsy) *

(Dept of Clinical & Experimental Epilepsy) * Dmitri Rusakov (Dept of Clinical & Experimental Epilepsy)

Other notable researchers

* Michael Hanna (Institute Director and Dept of Molecular Neuroscience) * Ley Sander (Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy) * Edward Wild (Huntington's Disease Centre)

Library

The institute operates a joint library with the

, which is located at the institute. The library is the recognised Library for Neurology within the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

and contains an important collection of specialist neurology, neurosurgery and neuroscience books and journals, together with general medical and biomedical literature. Holders of identity cards for the institute, UCL, the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery or

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) is an NHS foundation trust based in London, United Kingdom. It comprises University College Hospital, University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street, the UCH Macmillan Cancer C ...

may become registered users.

References

External links

UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
{{authority control Health in the London Borough of Camden Huntington's disease Medical research institutes in the United Kingdom Neurology organizations Organisations based in the London Borough of Camden University College London