New facilities for Brain Dynamics Centre

7 December 2006
International mind expert, Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE, officially opened the Brain Dynamics Centre's refurbished facilities, at Westmead Hospital, yesterday (Wednesday 6 December).

The University's Brain Dynamics Centre is a world leader in inter-disciplinary brain and mental health research and is part of the Westmead Millennium Institute at Westmead Hospital.

The Centre is involved in numerous mental health research programs focussing on the development of better diagnostic techniques, treatments and healthcare strategies.

Applauding the achievements of the Centre, Baroness Susan Greenfield, Professor of Pharmacology atOxford University, said she was delighted to be officially opening the new facilities:

"Since it was established, the Brain Dynamics Centre has been a leader in its field of research. Its strategy of blending psychiatry with a biological understanding of the brain provided a model for other research organisations worldwide who now look for new treatments and therapies, by combining clinical information with measurements of the brain, behaviour, and genetics."

"The Centre is now the coordinator of an international network of more than 100 scientists, each using the same testing procedures and approach for identifying markers of mental health disorders," she said.

Associate Professor Lea Williams, Director of the Brain Dynamics Centre, said the new facilities would allow the Centre to expand its research work even further.

"Our work already involves conditions like anxiety, depression, psychosis, eating disorders and ADHD and its related conduct disorders which often start in adolescence," said Professor Williams.

"But our research is not confined to the younger generation. We also conduct collaborative research with several overseas centres on disorders associated with aging, including Alzheimer's disease."

"The expanded facilities will support the ongoing research of our 60 staff and include new cognition and brain function laboratories, clinical rooms and a new 3T MRI scanner."

In 2006, the Centre secured more than $6 million in research funding and was awarded a federal government grant allowing it to become a Centre of Clinical Research Excellence.

Contact: Jake O'Shaughnessy

Phone: +61 2 9351 4312 04 0421 617 861

Email: jacob@media.usyd.edu.au