Knowledge gained overseas enabled the establishment of one of the few laboratories in the world investigating methods to restore balance reflex function. Assoc Prof Americo Migliaccio co-founded a laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in the USA and was part of the fast-track academic program. On returning to Australia, NeuRA offered an excellent opportunity to continue this research. He now applies […]
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Roewen Wishart, NeuRA Foundation Director, has three tips for you on how you can give for medical research while saving tax. How you help to fund medical breakthroughs Fortunately for medical research, our system of government provides ways you can support medical research. Firstly, when you pay tax you are contributing to Australia’s merit-based program to support research. NeuRA’s scientists […]
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Dr Muireann Irish’s research explores episodic and autobiographical memory in frontotemporal dementia. She has developed a new line of research investigating how damage to the memory system in neurodegenerative conditions affects the ability to imagine possible future events. Much in the same way as the quality of a photograph begins to fade with time, such is the fate of the […]
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Dr Michael Green is a physicist and has been working in MRI for 10 years. Graduating from Flinders University with a PhD in electron scattering, he worked at Williams College, MA, USA in laser spectroscopy before joining NeuRA working on brain elastography in Lynne Bilston’s laboratory. Michael was appointed as a senior research officer and has been a NIF Facilitation Fellow since […]
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Dr Justine Gatt is an NHMRC CDF Research Fellow at NeuRA. Here she shares an interesting idea: if there are ‘risky’ variants of genes that cause mental illness, could the opposite versions of these genes protect against mental illness? In other words, are risk and resilience two sides of the same coin? And where does our environment fit in the […]
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The laboratory of Prof George Paxinos is using technological advances in brain imaging to create new atlases of the anatomy of the nervous system. Brain researchers, no less than geographers, need maps and coordinate systems to navigate the brain and communicate their observations to each other. Think of a Google map depicting the shape of an island or the streets in a city. […]
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Dr Scott Kim is a NeuRA researcher investigating the molecular biology of multiple system atrophy. Here he describes the effects of this rare but fatal neurodegenerative disease on the body and some of the new thinking about what causes it. Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a degenerative brain disorder that impairs the body’s involuntary functions, like blood pressure, heart rate, and bladder […]
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Dr Bill Brooks has been studying families with inherited forms of Alzheimer’s disease and similar conditions including familial frontotemporal dementia for over 25 years. He is currently working on the international DIAN study (Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network). Friday, November 7, 2014 was an important day. That day, Amanda Ayliffe, our first participant, received her first dose in the DIAN-TU-001 study, […]
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If you read this blog, it’s likely you have some level of interest in science. And since it’s the holiday season, it’s possible you are looking for gifts. Among the children receiving gifts this year will be some future neuroscientists, healthcare professionals, and engineers. These will be the people behind the science, medicine, and technology needed to maintain and improve […]
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Professor Tony Broe is a geriatrician and neurologist who has made lasting and meaningful contributions to medical research. The Australasian Journal on Ageing recently published a reflection from Prof Broe, in which he describes with flair his experience as an ‘elder statesman’ in the field. Here are some excerpts from his recollection of early studenthood in 1954 to his current position at NeuRA, […]
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