UCL Research Department of Cell and Developmental Biology

The new building, known as the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, will be built on the corner of Howland Street and Charlotte Street. Members of Camden’s Development Control Committee voted in favour of the project at a meeting last night.

The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre represents a partnership between the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and the Wellcome Trust to establish a new Research Centre in Neural Circuits and Behaviour at UCL. The neuroscientists working there will use state-of-the-art molecular and cellular biology, imaging, electrophysiology and behavioural techniques, supported by computational modelling, to investigate how brain circuits process information to create neural representations and guide behaviour.

Professor John O'Keefe, Interim Director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, welcomed the decision to approve the scheme: “Everyone involved in this ambitious project is very pleased to have passed this important milestone. In addition to providing a world-class neuroscience research centre, we believe that the building will add significantly to the aesthetic quality of the area. I want to thank everyone involved for their hard work in getting this visionary project to this point.”

The location of the Centre within UCL brings many benefits due to the strength of UCL’s neuroscience research community and its relationships with other medical research organisations in the local area. UCL and the funders already work together with great success – the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL are both world-leaders in their fields.

The Centre is expected to be completed in 2014.

Image: Professor John O'Keefe