One of the world's foremost brain imaging research facilities has received a major boost after being awarded £6.74 million in funding over five years by the Wellcome Trust.
The former Functional Imaging Laboratory at University College London (UCL) is the recipient of a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award and becomes the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL.
The Strategic Award will further bolster the reputation of a laboratory already renowned for its research into the neural basis of human cognition, work which is extending our understanding of common neurological and psychiatric diseases, such as schizophrenia and dementia.
“The human brain and human cognition are incredibly complex, and as such, understanding them requires not only state-of-the-art technology, but also a body of science with strong theoretical underpinnings,” explains Professor Ray Dolan, director of the laboratory. “Our goal at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL is to provide excellence in both these aspects of imaging neuroscience. This will enable us to study in depth the functional architecture of the human brain, with the objective of identifying the core mechanisms that cause common neurological and psychiatric diseases.”
Alack of means to study the living human brain has historically been a major barrier to progress in finding treatment for common brain function disorders. However, this is now less of a problem due to the availability of powerful non-invasive imaging tools such as functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). The WTCFN has three state-of-the-art fMRI scanners and one MEG scanner.
“There has been formidable progress in understanding human brain function using fMRI and MEG techniques over the past ten years,” says Professor Dolan. “Application of these techniques has reached a level of maturity that we are now poised to apply them in a manner that can impact on our understanding of fundamental mechanisms of brain based diseases.”
“Research at the laboratory has provided valuable insights into our understanding of the basic processes of perception and cognition which will undoubtedly impact on the development and assessment of effective therapies for common human neurological and psychiatric disorders,” says Dr Sohaila Rastan, director of science funding at the Wellcome Trust.
Professor Malcolm Grant, president and provost of UCL, commented: “We are delighted to receive this award of nearly £7 million from the Wellcome Trust, and UCL will provide a further £1.2 million to support neuroscience research at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL.”
