Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is a devastating brain disease that quickly and progressively destroys the ability to move, speak, swallow and breathe. MND is also referred to as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in some countries. MND is incurable. The average life expectancy after diagnosis is two to three years. Jim Demirov was a strong man who enjoyed a successful drag-racing […]
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National Science Week celebrates science diversity. Following a degree in Medical Science, PhD student Jessica Lazarus continues her research journey in NeuRA’s PhD program. Heritable changes in gene expression that do not involve DNA coding sequence modifications are referred to as ‘epigenetic’. DNA methylation was the first discovered epigenetic mark, and remains the most studied. I will be using DNA […]
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The most important investment in our country, from both a social and economic perspective, is in the well-being of its citizens through health and medical research. Tackling the growing impact of mental illness is imperative, and given our ageing population, the neurodegenerative conditions mean that over 350,000 Australians are living with dementia. This requires a sustained and comprehensive commitment from […]
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Prof Tony Broe and Dr Kylie Radford talk about their research into dementia prevalence in Australia’s indigenous population. One of our recent studies has shown that dementia prevalence in Indigenous Australians, aged over 60, is three times higher than the overall Australian population. What is it that helps one person age successfully and cause another to develop age-related diseases like […]
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Dr Justine Gatt is a Group Leader at NeuRA. She runs a research program in risk and resilience in mental health. Her research focuses on understanding the predictors of anxiety and depression risk, as well as the factors that promote resilience and wellbeing. It is hoped that these characteristics can be promoted in people who may be less resilient. In […]
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Improving resilience and how children feel about themselves and others may have an important knock-on effect for their future mental health, especially if they experience psychotic-like symptoms. In the first study of its kind, our group of researchers are investigating how schematic beliefs – that is, beliefs formed early in life and shaped by childhood experience – may be associated […]
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Science has received some criticism recently. Researchers have shown that some (not all) scientific findings are not reproducible. One contributing factor to this problem is that scientific endeavours are not always transparent or open. Fortunately, scientists are actively responding to this problem. One major player in this area is the The Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS). […]
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Many baby boomers believe they will never have to slow down. Yet our research shows that they are worried about their brain health. The 50s and 60s are when something as seemingly innocuous as a sleep disorder, particularly obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) can lay the foundations for poor health for the rest of their lives. Obstructive sleep apnoea is a […]
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I invite you to read our latest publication – NeuRA’s 2016 Profile – where we have divided our research into five sections: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, midlife and older age to reflect the considerable range and diversity of our research. Significant achievements in human progress have come from harnessing the power of medical research, technology and innovation to accelerate health interventions. […]
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Dr Kim Delbaere and her research team have created a home-based training program that can be loaded onto an iPad to help improve the balance of those over the age of 70 to reduce their risk of falls. What made you think of creating an app for the Standing Tall program? We need older people to do balance exercises for […]
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