Brain Repair

The Cooperative in Brain Repair has used MRC funding for four posts to provide the infrastructure that has brought together 16 research groups to form a research centre with a critical mass of scientists working in the field of Brain Repair. The aim of the Cooperative is to develop treatments for chronic and crippling diseases of the nervous system. At present, when the brain or spinal cord are damaged, no repair takes place. This means that patients who suffering stroke, head injury, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, or progressive damage through Parkinson?s disease, Alzheimer?s disease or other conditions do not regain full neurological function. Many of these patients live for many years. The science of Brain Repair, which has sprung from developmental biology, is starting to develop treatments that can repair some of this hitherto permanent damage to the nervous system. In the coming years these treatments will revolutionise the practice of neurology, and the lives of those with chronic neurological damage.

The main target diseases of the Cooperative are:

Neurodegenerative disease Parkinson?s disease (PD)
Huntington?s disease (HD)
Dementias affecting the cortex and subcortical regions
Alzheimers disease (AD)

Demyelinating disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Congenital disorders

Acute CNS damage Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)
Head Injury
Stroke

To develop treatments for these diseases the Cooperative will continue to conduct research into the following basic technologies:

1. Mechanisms of cell death, neurodegeneration and the development of neuroprotective
treatments
2. Mechanisms of axon degeneration and axon protection
3. Stem cell and precursor pathology
4. Axon regeneration
5. Plasticity
6. Stem cell biology
7. Remyelination
8. Neuronal transplantation
9. Biomarkers of disease
10. Clinical applications