Neuroscience Research Australia (or NeuRA) is an independent

medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

research Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...

institute An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

based in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Previously called the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, the institute relaunched as Neuroscience Research Australia on 1 June 2010. NeuRA is accredited by the

National Health and Medical Research Council The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is the main statutory authority of the Australian Government responsible for medical research. It was the eighth largest research funding body in the world in 2016, and NHMRC-funded rese ...

. Neuroscience Research Australia is made up of approximately 260 researchers specialising in research on the brain and nervous system in health and disease. The current executive director is Professor Peter R Schofield.

Research activity

NeuRA’s research activity is organised into five themes: * Ageing and neurodegeneration:

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

frontotemporal dementia Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), or frontotemporal degeneration disease, or frontotemporal neurocognitive disorder, encompasses several types of dementia involving the progressive degeneration of frontal and temporal lobes. FTDs broadly present as ...

and other types of

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 ...

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 ...

motor neuron disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

, ageing research in indigenous populations,

stroke rehabilitation The primary goals of stroke management are to reduce brain injury and promote maximum patient recovery. Rapid detection and appropriate emergency medical care are essential for optimizing health outcomes. When available, patients are admitted to ...

* Brain function and imaging:

brain mapping Brain mapping is a set of neuroscience techniques predicated on the mapping of (biological) quantities or properties onto spatial representations of the (human or non-human) brain resulting in maps. According to the definition established in ...

for research and clinical use, on-site

MRI Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves ...

scanning,

autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

* Neural injury:

spinal cord injury A spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that causes temporary or permanent changes in its function. Symptoms may include loss of muscle function, sensation, or autonomic function in the parts of the body served by the spinal cor ...

, assessment and prevention of road trauma in children * Mental illness:

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...

, depression * Sensation, movement, balance and falls: human movement, fatigue,

sleep apnoea Sleep apnea, also spelled sleep apnoea, is a sleep disorder in which pauses in breathing or periods of shallow breathing during sleep occur more often than normal. Each pause can last for a few seconds to a few minutes and they happen many tim ...

, balance and vision, neural control of muscles,

falls in older adults Falls in older adults are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality and are a major class of preventable injuries. Falling is one of the most common accidents that cause a loss in the quality of life for older adults, and is usually preci ...

chronic pain Chronic pain is classified as pain that lasts longer than three to six months. In medicine, the distinction between Acute (medicine), acute and Chronic condition, chronic pain is sometimes determined by the amount of time since onset. Two commonly ...

NeuRA also houses research centres, including the Sydney Brain Bank and Genetic Repositories Australia.

History

NeuRA was established in 1991 by Professor Ian McCloskey, Professor David Burke, Professor Simon Gandevia and Professor Erica Potter with the support of the Eastern Sydney Area Health Service (now

South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Area Health Service (SESIAHS) was formed in 2005 from the amalgamation of the Illawarra Area Health Service and South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service. It was disbanded on 1 January 2011 as part of the Nationa ...

) and the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

. In 1993 the institute was established as an independent, not-for-profit company and researchers moved into buildings on the site of the old Randwick Chest Hospital, next to the

Prince of Wales Hospital Prince of Wales Hospital is a large of Tertiary referral hospital and large of teaching hospital from Faculty of Medicine in Chinese University of Hong Kong in Sha Tin, New Territories in Hong Kong.. Named after Charles, Prince of Wales (now ...

in Randwick. It was officially opened on 8 November 1993 by the Commonwealth Minister for Health Graham Richardson and the NSW Minister for Health Ron Phillips. On 15 November 2000, the Premier of New South Wales,

Bob Carr Robert John Carr (born 28 September 1947) is an Australian retired politician and journalist who served as the 39th Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005, as the leader of the NSW Branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He later en ...

, officially opened the new sections of the institute. In June 2009 the Minister for Science and Medical Research

Jodi McKay Jodi Leyanne McKay (born 16 August 1969) is a former Australian politician who was the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament of New South Wales from June 2019 until May 2021. She previously served as a member of the New South Wales Legislat ...

opened the Prince Henry Wing extension. In March 2010, the NSW government gave planning approval to the concept and project plans for a Neuroscience Research Precinct to be built on the existing site. Building works began on the first phase of the project in March 2010; with the first stage of designed by COX Architecture completed in 2013 at a cost of 40 million. The completed Neuroscience Research Precinct will provide six stories of laboratory and clinical research space, providing of floor space and housing up to 700 researchers, delivered in four stages. In 2018, NeuRA formed a cooperative partnership of four clinical, educational and research allies, including

Black Dog Institute __NOTOC__ The Black Dog Institute is a not-for-profit facility for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mood disorders such as depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder. It was founded in 2002 by the UNSW School of Psychiatry Scientia Professor ...

, South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (SESLHD) and

UNSW Sydney The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

to create Mindgardens Neuroscience Network which became the largest collaboration between researchers and clinicians in the Southern Hemisphere on brain disorders. Professor Peter Schofield became Mindgardens' Interim Co-CEO. In November 2018, NeuRA’s team of neuroscientists led by George Paxinos reported a finding of a new region of the human brain which they called the endorestiform nucleus. The group adopted an innovative enhanced staining method.

References

External links

Neuroscience Research Australia website
{{Authority control Neuroscience research centres in Australia Medical research institutes in Sydney 1991 establishments in Australia Philip Cox buildings Research institutes established in 1991 Randwick, New South Wales

Research activity

History

See also

References

External links