UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

Half a million people in the UK have epilepsy of which 30% are not adequately controlled on present treatments. Moreover, the use of one of the most effective antiepileptic drugs, sodium valproate, has been limited by its side-effects and, in particular, by its teratogenic effect (a teratogen is a drug or other substance capable of interfering with the development of a fetus, causing birth defects).

Men and women differ in the way they anticipate an unpleasant emotional experience, which influences the effectiveness with which that experience is committed to memory, according to new research.

Scientists have for the first time generated stem cells from one of the most rapidly progressing forms of Parkinson’s disease.

The British Tinnitus Association, in collaboration with UCL Ear Institute researchers, launched the 'Tackling Tinnitus' campaign this week. The campaign aims to raise funds to allow this important tinnitus research to continue. Read more

Medical research centres run by UCL in partnership with three NHS trusts have received preliminary government funding worth a total of approximately £165 million over five years.

Warm congratulations to Professor Alan Thompson, who has been appointed as the first ever Dean of the UCL Faculty of Brain Sciences. This new role comes about as the result of a major strategic restructuring of UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences. As a result of his new role Professor Thompson will relinquish the positions of Director of the Institute and interim Chair of the Neurosciences Domain. 

Professor Sophie Scott (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience) and Dr Roland Schaette (UCL Ear Institute) take part in podcast about how we make sense of what we hear. Listen: The Guardian

Congratulations to Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging’s Professor Eleanor Maguire, who has been awarded the Joan Mott Prize from The Physiological Society.

Animals' brains are only roughly aware of how high-up they are in space, meaning that in terms of altitude the brain’s ‘map’ of space is surprisingly flat, according to new research.

Congratulations to Professor Peter Dayan, Director of the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit at UCL, who has been awarded the David E. Rumelhart Prize for Contributions to the Theoretical Foundations of Human Cognition.