Role Of The Hypothalamus, Oxidative Stress And Angiotensin In Chronic Stress
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$535,333.00
Summary
Stress can trigger life threatening cardiovascular events and its impact is much greater when blood pressure is raised. We seek to determine which chemical type of brain neuron and which region is responsible for amplifying the responses to repeated stress in an animal model that closely resembles the human form of the disease. We will focus specifically on the hypothalamus which controls the sympathetic nervous system.
Generation Of Complex Responses In Retinal Ganglion Cells
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$490,500.00
Summary
The retinal ganglion cells, whose axons form the optic nerve, comprise numerous distinct types, which respond to visual stimuli in either a simple or complex manner. The project will investigate how the complex responses of the direction-selective ganglion cells (DSGCs) and the local-edge-detector ganglion cells (LEDs) are generated. It appears that the retinal neurons providing inhibitory input to DSGCs and LEDs use different neurotransmitters, and the project will investigate how this shapes t ....The retinal ganglion cells, whose axons form the optic nerve, comprise numerous distinct types, which respond to visual stimuli in either a simple or complex manner. The project will investigate how the complex responses of the direction-selective ganglion cells (DSGCs) and the local-edge-detector ganglion cells (LEDs) are generated. It appears that the retinal neurons providing inhibitory input to DSGCs and LEDs use different neurotransmitters, and the project will investigate how this shapes the response properties of the ganglion cells. This will be done both by recording the visually evoked responses of the ganglion cells in an isolated preparation of the retina and by using two-photon laser-scanning microscopy to functionally image the neuronal interactions between the neurons that inhibit the DSGCs.Read moreRead less
Investigating Cortical Plasticity And Connectivity In People With Chronic Low Back Pain And Controls Using Combined TMS_EEG
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$318,768.00
Summary
Little is known about the factors that predispose the development of chronic low back pain or what changes underpin effective treatment. Brain changes, thought to reflect adaptive processes are associated with chronic pain, but the extent of their contribution to CLBP is unknown. By measuring the adaptability of brain changes in people with CLBP I will determine if they differ from healthy controls in a way that predisposes them to develop chronic pain and is related to treatment response.
Multidimensional Coding Of Visual Information In The Retina
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$359,431.00
Summary
Although both the retina and visual cortex are part of the central nervous system, the coding of visual information in the two laminar structures differs markedly in that all three dimensions of the cortical sheet are used to code multiple response axes but only one dimension of the retinal sheet. This project examines how visual response properties are mapped through the depth of the retina and this will provide a comparatively simple paradigm of complex information processing in the brain.
I am a neuropharmacologist and a neuroanatomist who is involved in utilising a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the functional role of metalloproteinases in the brain.
Forebrain Neuroadaptations To Chronic Morphine Treatment
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$435,956.00
Summary
Drug addiction is caused by long term changes in brain areas that normally produce the drives that sustain normal behaviours such as eating, drinking and sex. Addictive drugs effectively hijack these brain areas so that behaviours relating to drug taking become associated with feeling good. In some individuals, over time the pattern of drug taking becomes compulsive and no longer can be controlled. This transition is now known to be due to drugs causing physical changes to certain groups of nerv ....Drug addiction is caused by long term changes in brain areas that normally produce the drives that sustain normal behaviours such as eating, drinking and sex. Addictive drugs effectively hijack these brain areas so that behaviours relating to drug taking become associated with feeling good. In some individuals, over time the pattern of drug taking becomes compulsive and no longer can be controlled. This transition is now known to be due to drugs causing physical changes to certain groups of nerve cells in the brain. The affected nerve cells are responsible for causing new behaviours that appear once addiction is established. Addiction is not exclusive to humans. Animals will self-inject the same addictive drugs that humans use, and show many other kinds of addictive behaviours that parallel aspects of human addiction. Studying the effects of addictive drugs on rats and other animals has been very important in working out where and how drugs work. We now have a very good idea of which parts of the brain are affected by drugs, and it turns out that most addictive drugs act in the same places. We also now know for all of the major drugs, exactly which parts of nerve cells they affect. However, this turns out to be only the first step as the nerve cells that directly respond to drugs can affect other whole networks of nerve cells. This study is going to look at how morphine, a drug that is related to heroin, affects nerve cells in a part of the brain that helps cause addiction. It is going to work out which of the many pathways in this brain region are affected by morphine treatments that cause addiction in rats. It will then see what is happening to single nerve cells in the affected pathways. If we can understand more about these processes it may become possible to come up with new ways to treat addiction. We will also understand much more about the production of powerful emotional and behavioural drives so many of us find hard to control.Read moreRead less
Mechanism Of Interaction Of VWC Domains And Consequence For Protein Function
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$516,803.00
Summary
More than 1000 proteins contain a type of module known as the VWC domain. These domains are discreet sections of the protein that are very important for how the protein works. Proteins containing this domain are involved in normal functioning of the human body and in diseases of the nervous system and blood, among others. The main function of the VWC domain is to link proteins together in complexes. How this is achieved is not known and is what we aim to discover.
Transcriptional control of neural stem cell differentiation during development and disease. Understanding the molecular mechanisms that control how neural stem cells differentiate is critical to provide potential therapeutic treatment for neurodegenerative diseases and for brain cancer. This project will aim to discover, using an animal model system, the genes and molecules regulating these key biological processes.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100074
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$520,000.00
Summary
Facilities for automated high-throughput slide scanning and stereology. The equipment requested will facilitate the work of the Australian Mouse Brain Mapping Consortium, a consortium of Australian research groups collaborating to provide the only mouse model brain mapping capability in the country. The consortium brings together laboratory, neuroimaging and computational expertise in a comprehensive framework for imaging the mouse brain. This will help researchers to study mouse models of genet ....Facilities for automated high-throughput slide scanning and stereology. The equipment requested will facilitate the work of the Australian Mouse Brain Mapping Consortium, a consortium of Australian research groups collaborating to provide the only mouse model brain mapping capability in the country. The consortium brings together laboratory, neuroimaging and computational expertise in a comprehensive framework for imaging the mouse brain. This will help researchers to study mouse models of genetic and acquired disorders across the life-span. Remote viewing and analysis capabilities will help overcome the 'tyranny of distance', increasing national access to the facility. Repositories of digitised images will increase the availability of valuable research material to other Australian and international researchers.Read moreRead less
Psychiatric disorders in epilepsy. Psychiatric disorders, such as depression, anxiety and cognitive disorders, are frequently observed in patients with epilepsy. Although standard dogma suggests that psychiatric disorders are a consequence of living with epilepsy, recent evidence suggests a bidirectional relationship between these disorders, such that depression and other psychiatric illnesses act as risk factors for epilepsy development. This project will utilise basic science approaches to und ....Psychiatric disorders in epilepsy. Psychiatric disorders, such as depression, anxiety and cognitive disorders, are frequently observed in patients with epilepsy. Although standard dogma suggests that psychiatric disorders are a consequence of living with epilepsy, recent evidence suggests a bidirectional relationship between these disorders, such that depression and other psychiatric illnesses act as risk factors for epilepsy development. This project will utilise basic science approaches to understand the causal relationships between epilepsy and psychiatric disorders, and determine how and why psychiatric disorders and epilepsy co-exist. It is hoped that research conducted in this project will develop novel avenues to treatment of both epilepsy and psychiatric disorders.Read moreRead less