|
>
Research
The Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute’s research
falls under these major themes:
Brain
Mapping & Abnormalities
Human
Balance & Falls
Injury
Neural
Control of Muscles
Neural Control
of Organs
Parkinson’s
Disease, Dementia and Ageing
The Schizophrenia Research
Laboratory
The
Sensory System
Brain
Mapping & Abnormalities
Brain researchers, no less than geographers, need maps and
coordinate systems to navigate the brain and communicate their
observations to each other. On a map of the brain we can superimpose
types of neurons, neurotransmitters, enzymes, and connectivity
and functional data. We are continuing to develop and refine
brain atlases of humans and experimental animals which are
used internationally as the standard guides for scientific
work and are also used by neurosurgeons to target small deep
lying structures in the brain.
Human
Balance & Falls
Control of balance is vital to everyday life. Maintaining
balance involves highly complex processing of peripheral sensory
information and precise coordination of motor responses. Our
research aims to enhance understanding of human balance and
involves investigations of sensory and motor contributions,
particularly those from the vestibular system. Current studies
are designed to investigate the physiology and biomechanics
of standing, walking, stepping reactions, trips and slips.
Fall risk factors and strategies for prevention of falls in
different populations are being systematically examined in
large-scale studies.
Injury
Injury is the leading cause of death for people under 45
years of age. Injuries to the nervous system, such as brain
and spinal cord injuries, are particularly devastating - often
leading to lifelong disability. Our research includes a range
of studies from basic research into the mechanisms of injury,
to developing improved treatments for injured people and to
developing strategies to prevent injuries.
Neural
Control of Muscles
The motor cortex controls every voluntary movement made by
the more than 600 muscles in the body. The precision of human
movement is a hallmark of the evolution of primates. Damage
to the neural pathways, as occurs in stroke, has devastating
consequences including paralysis, loss of speech, impaired
walking and other impairments of motor function. We are studying
human movement - its initiation, its effects and its impairments
in humans.
Neural Control
of Organs
Our research covers a broad range of body functions, from
control of the heart and blood vessels, to bladder, bowel
and reproductive function. Many of the projects are aimed
at understanding how these organs are controlled and coordinated
in normal, healthy systems, so that we then devise ways of
preventing or reversing problems that later occur due to injury
or disease.
Parkinson’s
Disease, Dementia and Ageing
Our research at POWMRI is to understand how the brain ages,
both successfully and unsuccessfully. We are particularly
interested in age-related neurodegenerative diseases because
these are now major health problems due to increased life
expectancy being a flow-on from the decreasing impact of infectious
and systemic diseases.
The Schizophrenia Research Laboratory
Our focus is on trying to uncover the molecular basis for schizophrenia, a devastating mental illness
which first manifests during adolescence. The primary focus is to understand how genetic variants of
hormone receptors and growth factors impact the development and function of the cerebral cortex during
adolescence and how these factors may be altered in schizophrenia. We explore the molecular mechanism
of schizophrenia by using human brains and primary neuronal culture. We are pinpointing DNA sequence
variations in susceptibility genes that may determine vulnerability to schizophrenia. We are also
determining if available cognitive enhancing drugs may be used as supplements to help patients with
schizophrenia and how genetic variations may be used to improve treatment decisions.
The
Sensory System
Sensory receptors reside in virtually every part of the body.
They are responsive to different stimuli and provide the brain
and spinal cord with information about our internal environment
and about the world around us. We are using a range of techniques
to understand how the sensory system works, how it affects
the motor output from the brain, and how it gives us an accurate
“sensory” map of the external world. Our research aims to understand
the changes in the sensory pathways after injury and other
pathologies, including the involvement of the immune system in
inflammation, leading to sensory disturbances such as
hypersensitivity and spontaneous pain. Strategies to help
patients with these conditions are being studied.
|
