The Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre (MNC), is a joint centre of

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

and Melbourne Health in

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 ...

. It brings together clinical and research teams at Sunshine and Royal Melbourne Hospitals, with a dedicated brain imaging archive and analysis laboratory located at the University's Parkville campus. The MNC was established in 2004 with the appointment of

Christos Pantelis Professor Christos Pantelis is an Australian professor of medicine who is the Director of the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre. Profile Prof. Christos Pantelis is an Australian of Greek background. He completed his medical degree at the Uni ...

as Foundation Professor in Neuropsychiatry at The University of Melbourne. Since that time, MNC has established its reputation as one of the most productive psychiatric research centres in Australia. The team at MNC currently consists of both academic and professional staff. At any given time MNC supports over 30 individuals who work with the research streams at the Alan Gilbert Building as stipend funded PhD students, Masters and Honours students, and international research fellows. The MNC has established an international reputation in the areas of

cognition Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

and

neuroimaging Neuroimaging is the use of quantitative (computational) techniques to study the structure and function of the central nervous system, developed as an objective way of scientifically studying the healthy human brain in a non-invasive manner. Incre ...

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 ...

with several important publications in high-profile international psychiatry, neurology and radiology journals. MNC has maintained a core research focus on understanding the neurobiology of psychosis and other neurodevelopment disorders (including

autism spectrum disorders 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 disorder, neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) ...

), following on from its seminal work identifying progressive changes at transition to a psychotic illness (Pantelis et al., Lancet, 2003). It has also developed core overlapping research interests in the area of epilepsy and neurodegenerative disorders (Velakoulis et al.); depression and anxiety (Harrison et al., Whittle et al.); advanced brain network science (Zalesky et al.) and psychiatric genetics and genomics (Bousman et al.). The MNC aims to ensure that people suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders benefit from cutting edge research that will improve management and treatment outcomes.

External links

Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre website
Organisations based in Melbourne Research institutes in Melbourne University of Melbourne Mental health organisations in Australia {{psychiatry-stub