In a welcome announcement last week, the University of Melbourne officially opened the Centre for Neural Engineering, a cross-faculty initiative that is tasked to address some of the challenging problems in neuroscience and increase our understanding of brain function.
Research at the CfNE will have important applications in the treatment of vision and hearing loss, as well as treatments for epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and spinal injuries.
Director of the new centre, Professor Stan Skafidis said that it was a step forward in bringing together researchers and experts from Engineering, Medicine and Science to improve health outcomes for people suffering with neuronal conditions.
“The CfNE links researchers across several faculties in line with the world-wide convergence of the physical sciences and the life sciences,” he said.
“This is an exciting challenge as we work together to understand the neural code, repair neural networks when they go wrong and develop artificial devices and prostheses such as a bionic eye.”
The Centre for Neural Engineering is home to four cutting-edge research laboratories:
Bionics – integrating electronic systems in the body to replace or assist function by directly stimulating neurons. Researchers will be working at CfNE as part of Bionic Vision Australia on Bionic Eye technology.
Computational Neurobiology – bridging the gap from molecular structure to human behaviour. Researchers in this lab will be looking at how ions in epilepsy patients’ brain cells differ from those of non-epilepsy sufferers.
Sensors and Imaging – Understanding the dynamics of neuronal networks to gain insight into the brain’s information processing.
Stem Cells and Disease Models – This lab combines expertise in human stem cell biology, neurobiology, and cell and tissue engineering to study diseases of the human brain.
The Centre was opened by Nobel Laureate, Professor Bert Sakmann, from Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology and Senator Jacinta Collins, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education.
Senator Collins said that while the University of Melbourne received $17.5m from the Education Investment Fund for the building of the new Centre for Neural Engineering, the true value of the centre was in the contribution it would make to furthering multidisciplinary research, which would lead to new and exciting medical discoveries.
Professor Sakmann, along with his research partner Erwin Neher, won the 1991 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering how ions flow in and out of cells. They invented the Patch Clamp technique to measure the electrical activity of living cells. Professor Sakmann is now the Scientific Director of Max Planck’s Florida Institute.
In welcoming the opening of the Centre, Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr said the Centre is a momentous undertaking and a valuable addition to the university’s world-class collaborative research.
“Through this Centre, Australia will be in the box seat for developing new brain-machine interfaces that can do anything from helping quadriplegics use computer systems to enhancing computer games and entertainment,” Senator Carr said.
The Centre for Neural Engineering is another example of the progress being made in Melbourne in responding to the convergence of the life sciences and engineering and computing that the ICT for Life Sciences Forum has been advocating since its establishment in 2008.
Left to right – Professor Iven Mareels (Dean, Melbourne School of Engineering), Senator Jacinta Collins, Professor Bert Sackmann, Professor Stan Skafidas (Director, Centre for Neural Engineering)
In a welcome announcement last week, the University of Melbourne officially opened the Centre for Neural Engineering, a cross-faculty initiative that is tasked to address some of the challenging problems in neuroscience and increase our understanding of brain function.
