Neuropathology
Postmortem study of the brain has contributed significantly towards our understanding of the underlying causes and consequences of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Several strands of research are being conducted in the Department that investigate diseases of the nervous system including Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease in both clinical and experimental models. Ongoing research projects are investigating neurogenic stem cells in the normal adult human brain and in neurodegenerative disease; examining the pathogenesis of Huntington’s disease in the novel R6/1-89Q transgenic mouse model developed within the Department; and looking at glial cell responses in ageing and neurodegeneration (see the web pages of Drs Rezaie, Murphy and Hirst). We have close links with the Institute of Psychiatry in London, with clinical neuropathologists in the UK, the MRC London and Cambridge Brain and Tissue Banks, and with collaborators in the US, Germany, Hong Kong and Japan. A particular focus of research centers on the Neuropathology of Autism, funded by the global, parent-led charity Autism Speaks and supported by the Autism Tissue Program (USA).
