Brain waves

Dr Louise Faber
Dr Louise Faber

Researchers at UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute are involved in several major projects aimed at increasing understanding of what remains a most mysterious and fascinating human organ

Neuroscientists at UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) continue to make major inroads into understanding of the fundamental mechanisms regulating brain function.

Formed in 2003, the QBI is forging strong links with neuroscientists around the world, and is particularly well-placed to develop close relations with the rapidly emerging and highly respected neuroscience community in China.

Neuroscientists generally use animal models to characterise and map the molecular changes in the human brain because the mechanisms controlling the central nervous system (CNS) of rodents are reasonably similar to those within the human CNS.

QBI Director Professor Perry Bartlett and Dr Natalie Bull have discovered a molecular mechanism in the mouse hippocampus that could help regenerate brain cells in people with dementia or acquired brain injury.

Professor Bartlett says the research is further evidence the human CNS has the potential capacity to be stimulated into generating new nerve cells.

QBI’s Professor Pankaj Sah studies another area of the brain, the amygdala, part of the limbic system that is involved in assigning emotional significance to cognitive events.

In 2005, Professor Sah and his co-researchers at QBI, Dr Louise Faber and Dr Andrew Delaney, gained international recognition when they released a scientific paper about mechanisms crucial to memory and learning in the amygdala.

Two QBI-led teams have also each identified molecules that play key roles in establishing the major nerve connections between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, the corpus callosum.

Incorrect formation of the corpus callosum – which has millions of individual nerve fibres – is associated with a large number of birth defects which lead to mental retardation and cognitive and sensory/motor disorders.

QBI neural migration laboratory head, Associate Professor Helen Cooper, said her team had discovered that a receptor molecule known as the Ryk guided young nerves away from the corpus callosum and towards their targets in the opposite hemisphere.

She said the process was critical for the transmission of sensory information effectively throughout the adult brain.

Meanwhile, QBI developmental neuroscientist Associate Professor Linda Richards heads an international team which has discovered that the receptor molecule Robo1 also plays a crucial role in the healthy development of the corpus callosum.

Established as part of the Queensland Government’s Smart State initiative, QBI is already one of the two largest neuroscience research centres in the Asia Pacific region.

QBI’s status as an emerging centre for neuroscience excellence was recognised with a $10 million grant in the 2006 Federal Budget.

The Queensland Government, The Atlantic Philanthropies and the University have funded construction of a new $60 million facility to house the QBI, due for completion by mid-2007.

HIPPOCAMPUS

AMYGDALA RYK

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