Newsletter: March 2024

Welcome to the March newsletter from the Exeter Brain Network!

This edition includes exciting updates from across our network, including some great opportunities to get involved in upcoming events!

As always, we welcome any submissions that members feel would be valuable to share, so please get in touch! If you would like to contribute an item to be included in the EBN newsletter, please share them here, and they will be included in the next issue.

Contents:

NEWS | EVENTS | MEMBER SUCCESS | ONGOING RESEARCH STUDIES |  FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

NEWS

EXETER BRAIN NETWORK SEEDCORN FUNDING WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Congratulations to all those who received funding through the EBN seedcorn grants:

Joseph Sweetman: Marr's moral mind/brain

The pilot project will be part of a programme of research that will employ a formal model of moral cognition and examine it at behavioural, computational, neural, and developmental/learning levels of understanding. This programme of research is interdisciplinary, drawing on computational/computer science, cognitive neuroscience and psychological approaches. This project will offer a novel opportunity to test a formal model of moral cognition and help to gain insights into how the mind/brain does moral perception.

Clémence Bernard: Investigating the developmental expression of a chromatin remodelling factor in VIP interneurons

This pilot project will allow us to gather preliminary data on the expression and enrichment of Chd7 in developing mouse cortical VIP interneurons, as well as on VIP interneuron numbers in a mouse model of CHARGE syndrome. Future projects will aim to (1)identify the function of Chd7 in VIP interneurons development, (2) determine the role ofChd7 in establishing VIP connectivity and (3) investigate the epigenetic mechanisms underlying Chd7 functions in VIP interneurons.

Jan Vollert: Pain as a predictor of dementia: harnessing the PROTECT study

We will harvest the PROTECT database to retrospectively analyse the link between chronic pain and dementia. We will first publish a paper on current levels of pain in the PROTECT cohort; a large cohort of mostly healthy and diverse individuals. The core group includes pain researchers, data scientists, and a pain clinician. Future projects will involve deeply phenotyping a subgroup of the cohort, using mechanistic pain studies, pain interference, reduction of quality of life, qualitative interviews, proteomic and genomic analyses, to holistically understand pain mechanisms in these patients.

CLINICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES SEMINAR SERIES

The CBS Seminar series on 20th March with  Clémence Bernard from the University of Exeter was held at St Luke's campus and online.  Her talk was on the subject of "Cortical wiring by synapse type-specific control of local protein synthesis".  A drinks reception with wine, non-alcoholic drinks and nibbles was provided at the seminar. 

PRECISELY INTERFACING WITH THE HUMAN BRAIN AT SCALE EVENT

On 19th March, we had the privilege of hosting Jacques Carolan, Programme Director of the ARIA Opportunity Space, for a special event titled "Precisely Interfacing with the Human Brain at Scale."

EXETER BRAIN NETWORK WEBSITE

Our new EBN website is now live: Exeter Brain | Exeter Brain | University of Exeter. If you have any news (e.g. successful grants, new papers etc.) or events coming up then please do send these over to researchnetworks@exeter.ac.uk.

EVENTS

EXETER BRAIN NETWORK SEMINAR SERIES

We are pleased to invite you to the next Exeter Brain Network Seminar, this time at the St Luke’s campus. More details will follow ahead of the event via email to network members. Please feel free to forward the invitation to colleagues and networks when it is available.

Event: Friday 26th April 2024 from 12:00-1:00pm on the St Luke’s campus.

Speakers: Professor Wendy Noble and Dr Alex Shaw.

GW4 EARLY CAREER NEUROSCIENTISTS' DAY 2024 THIS OCTOBER!

The registration website for the GW4 Early Career Neuroscientists' Day 2024 this October has launched: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/neuroscience/events/2024/gw4-ecnd-2024.html 

It would be great to have a good contingent representing Exeter Neuroscience going!

This is open to all levels of academics – undergraduate to PIs – in the hope that we will be able to foster great networking between the GW4 neuroscience communities!

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE'S WELLBEING @ EXETER RESEARCH NETWORK SEMINARS

Duncan Astle - Development, diversity and data science: A transdiagnostic approach to understanding neurodevelopment

The CYP Wellbeing Research Network are pleased to invite you to the next CYP Wellbeing @Exeter Research Network seminar taking place on Tuesday 9th April. Professor Duncan Astle is Professor of Neuroinformatics, within the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge. This will be a live in-person seminar at St Luke’s Campus, which will be live streamed to the Streatham Campus. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available at both venues.

Event: Tuesday 9th April 2024 12:00-1:00pm Live at St Luke’s campus Baring Court, Room 128 or via live stream Streatham campus Washington Singer Room 234.

Title: Development, diversity and data science: A transdiagnostic approach to understanding neurodevelopment

Please register to attend here  or email cypwellbeing@exeter.ac.uk for more information. Please feel free to forward this to your colleagues and networks. Please note these events are open to all students as well as staff. Thank you.

MEMBER SUCCESS

ONGOING RESEARCH STUDIES

NEW PAIN STUDY RECRUITING PARTICIPANTS

Want to help pain research? For this pain study we need healthy participants between the age of 18-50 for a study on pain modulation. You’ll visit the Exeter Pain Lab in the Clinical Research Facility four times (approx. 1 week apart) and run through a series of questionnaires alongside psychophysical, physiological and neurophysiological measures related to pain processing. If you would like to be involved, please email Josh Murphy.

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

QUEX STRATEGY GRANT

The QUEX Institute is a partnership between the University of Queensland and the University of Exeter. Its mission is to deliver research that addresses major global challenges, unified by the central issue of ‘Global Sustainability and Wellbeing’. Four themes (Healthy Living, Global Environmental Futures, Digital Worlds and Disruptive Technologies and Mineral Security and Sustainability) underpin its work.

The Strategic Grant (internal funding of up to £200,000, with additional match-funding expected), is designed to provide high-level support for one area of collaborative world-leading research, linked to one or more of the Institute’s four themes. Project teams must be comprised of colleagues from the University of Exeter, and the University of Queensland.

To find out more about the grant, as well as details of how to apply, please see the guidelines and application form. You can also contact quex@exeter.ac.uk. The deadline for applications is 22nd April.

LAUNCHPAD GRANTS IN MENTAL HEALTH

The Medical Research Foundation is inviting mid-career researchers in the field of mental health to apply for up to £100,000 to support their research.

Funded research should increase understanding of mental health, and improve diagnosis, treatment and recovery. It will also act as a launchpad for further research suitable for larger funding opportunities.

More information here: Medical Research Foundation | Launchpad Grants in Mental Health

Exeter Brain is coordinated by Dr Sam Hughes and Dr Asami Oguro-Ando

Please email Sophie Clarke to submit items for future newsletters by the last Friday of each month. To find out more about our work, please get in touch with us.