UCL Institute of Neurology

The UCL Institute of Neurology has now opened the Queen Square Clinical Trial Centre (QSCTC).

The aim of the centre is to increase clinical trial activity in neuroscience by supporting and facilitating research and by linking with the newly established UCL Clinical Trials Unit (CTU), led by Dr. Ann-Marie Swart and working closely with the Central East London (CEL) Comprehensive Local Research Network (CLRN), current neurological disorders lead, Professor Alan Thompson.

The Queen Square Library has been awarded a grant of £82k from the Wellcome Trust to catalogue and preserve the collections of case notes and films held as part of the Queen Square Archive. Significant work on the archives has already been carried out as part of the recent £1m refurbishment of the Library, funded by the National Brain Appeal and the Brain Research Trust, which included the creation of a base for the archives of the National Hospital and a museum.  A web site is now available providing access to results of the work carried out to date.

1. CSC Partially-Funded Visiting Research Scholarships

UCL Deadline 1st February 2012 (offers must be made before the CSC deadline of 20 March 2012)

UCL offers a number of fee-only scholarships to match CSC-funded one-year Visiting Research Scholarships. This is to encourage research collaborations with top Chinese laboratories for mutually beneficial research projects that may lead to co-funding opportunities from other sources. Further information on this scheme can be found here:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/chres_studentvisit

Please note that students MUST hold an unconditional offer to study at UCL as a research affiliate in order to be eligible for this award. For information on how to apply for admission as Visiting Research Students, please go to:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/visres_howtoapply

The EpiPGX Consortium, involving 15 partners from 8 countries, has received almost €6 million funding from the European Union FP7 programme to investigate the genetic basis of responses to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in epilepsy.

Over 50,000,000 people across the world have epilepsy. For many people, AEDs are simply not available, or the choice is extremely limited. In other countries, several AEDs are available to be prescribed, but the evidence guiding choice of drug for an individual patient is very limited. The EpiPGX Consortium will explore the influence of genetic variation on responses, both desirable and undesirable, to AEDs, aiming to identify genetic variants that will guide treatment choices at the individual level.

The Consortium is coordinated by Professor Sanjay Sisodiya, UCL Institute of Neurology (Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy), with the following partners: Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), Istituto Giannina Gaslini (Italy), Eberhard Karls Universitaet Tuebingen (Germany), Stichting Epilepsie Instellingen Nederland (The Netherlands), Universitaetsklinikum Bonn (Germany), Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (Ireland), Belfast Health and Social Care Trust (UK), Islensk Erfdagreining EHF (Iceland), Universite Du Luxembourg (Luxembourg), Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht (The Netherlands), The University of Liverpool (UK), Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (UK), University of Glasgow (UK) and GABO:mi Gesellschaft fur Ablauforganisation:milliarium mbH & Co. KG (Germany).

The Consortium welcomes collaboration. Please contact s.sisodiya@ucl.ac.uk for further information.

Professor Ray Dolan has been elected a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) for “sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology”.

We are delighted to announce that Professor Clare Fowler, UCL Professor of Uro-Neurology at the Institute and Honorary Consultant Uro-Neurologist at the NHNN, UCLH Trust, has been awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours List "for services to Uro-Neurology".

A patient who is part of the first first UK trial to evaluate the impact of 'deep brain stimulation' on Tourette's - a collaboration between the UCL Institute of Neurology (Unit of Functional Neurosurgery) and the National Hospital of Neurology and Neurosurgery - has experienced a dramatic recovery.

The Faculty of Brain Sciences is holding an Open Day for prospective postgraduate students on 8 February 2012.

A new centre dedicated to the understanding and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases will be established at UCL following the award of a £20million grant from the Wolfson Foundation, it was announced today.