Information about departments

The first child stem cell-supported trachea transplant is functioning well two years on, according to a paper published in The Lancet today.

A paper highlighting early results from the International Carotid Stenting Study (ICSS), a UCL-led multi-centre clinical trial which compared two treatments for carotid narrowing was recently listed in the Lancet as one of their ten most cited papers in 2010-2011. Narrowing of one of the carotid arteries in the neck (stenosis), which supply blood to the brain, is one of the major causes of stroke and is usually caused by deposits of fat in the wall of the artery, known as atherosclerosis.

Researchers from UCL and Imperial College London are carrying out a neuroscience study to examine for the first time how the resting brain responds to MDMA, the pure form of the Class A drug ecstasy. The study is funded by Channel 4, and recorded footage of it will be shown on two new science programmes this autumn, ‘Drugs Live: The Ecstasy Trial’, alongside a live studio debate to explore issues linked with MDMA.

Dr Rumana Chowdhury, research fellow at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience writes about her experience presenting her PhD research at last month’s Human Brain Mapping Conference in Beijing, China.

• Link: Job Description and Application Details

Deaf people in the British Sign Language (BSL) community have had a long struggle to access dementia diagnosis and support, with serious implications for quality of life and treatment.

What part of the brain makes us laugh and in what manner? For the next few days Professor Sophie Scott (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience) has taken her laughter lab to the Royal Society's summer science exhibition. Visit their stand, LOL: the science and art of laughter. Listen: BBC R4 Today (from 2hrs 43mins). More: Daily Mail, UCL video.

Extracts from the Provost's newsletter.

Warmest congratulations to:

Researchers at the UCL Institute of Neurology have found that giving the drug rotigotine as a skin patch can improve inattention in some stroke patients.

A genetic study based at UCL Institute of Neurology and the NIH in the United States has identified two riboflavin transporter genes that are defective in children with a type of motor neuron disease called Brown-Vialetto van Laere syndrome.