Research Expertise

Specific Areas of Research Expertise

· Clinical epidemiology of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias

· SNP genotyping, genome-wide association studies, next-generation sequencing, copy number variant analysis pertaining to schizophrenia and other nervous system disorders.

· Functional genomics including RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq and single cell genomics analysis.

· Development and validation of novel and highly-relevant animal models of neurological and psychiatric disorders.

· Sex and gender specific differences in preclinical models and neurological and psychiatric conditions

· Expertise in behavioural evaluation of motor, cognitive, affective and sensory function in animal models, healthy human participants and patients.

· Pain research from bench to bedside through the Centre for Pain Research.

· Development and validation of blood-based biomarkers for neurological disorders

· Development and validation of novel biomaterial-based technologies for treating neurological disorders.

· Stem cell technologies, including adult stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, and the application of these technologies to brain and spinal cord repair.

· Gene therapy approaches for modulation of glial scarring

· Drug target identification and preclinical drug testing for neurological and psychiatric disorders

· The role of neuroinflammation, the endocannabinoid system, endoplasmic reticulum stress, neurotrophic factors, heat shock proteins, trinucleotide repeat expansions and histone deacetylase complex in neurological and psychiatric disorders.

· Clinical neuroimaging: structural, diffusion and functional MRI, DTI-MRI, amyloid-PET and tau-PET

· Clinical neurology and neuroscience

· Cognitive neuroscience and behavioural phenotyping

· Psychological (e.g. cognitive behavioural) interventions for improved management of neurological and psychiatric disorders.

· Aetiopathogenesis and amelioration of Parkinson’s disease

· Vascular and lifestyle risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias

· Stroke and neurovascular stress; blood clot analysis

· In vivo imaging of neuronal activity in freely moving mice, in vitro electrophysiology and calcium imaging

· Development of optogenetic and other brain stimulation approaches for the treatment of neurological disorders

· Ex vivo modelling of brain pathologies and spinal cord injury

· Mathematical and computer modelling