The Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) is one of the world’s leading centres in neuroscience research, with pivotal discoveries made at QBI now being translated into the clinic. QBI researchers have published over 5,000 research papers since the Institute’s establishment in 2003. More than 300 researchers, students and support staff work to understand the brain in health and disease.

QBI’s research spans brain development and plasticity, cognition and behaviour, mental health, dementia and ageing, and brain injury. QBI researchers focus on discovery research that underpins tomorrow’s medical breakthroughs. Understanding the brain requires a multidisciplinary approach that embraces the collision of science, health, technology and engineering.

Website

http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au

Organisation type

• University Research Institute

Number of research staff

300-500 research staff

Address

Building 79, The University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072

Strengths and capabilities

• Neurological disorders
• Deep brain stimulation
• Drug discovery
• Understanding neural circuits
• Genomics
• Biophysics of neurons
• High field microscopy
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and MRI imaging
• Single cell imaging
• Animal behaviour

Facilities and major equipment

• Physical Containment Class 2 (PC2) laboratories
• Histology facilities
• Tissue culture facilities
• Flow cytometry facility
• Magnetic resonance imaging scanners
• Vivarium and animal behaviour facility
• Super-resolution microscopy

Lead researchers

• Professor Pankaj Sah —Deepening understanding of synaptic plasticity in the amygdala and neural activity in patients undergoing deep brain stimulation for movement disorders.
• Professor Jürgen Götz—Discovery that non-invasive ultrasound therapy can restore memory in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, now in early-stage human trials.
• Professor Gail Robinson—Improving clinical assessment and management of neurodegenerative disorders, neurodevelopment disorders, brain tumours and stroke.
• Associate Professor Fatima Nasrallah—Expanding knowledge of traumatic brain injury from concussion to severe damage through sophisticated imaging and biomarkers.
• Emeritus Professor Perry Bartlett—Discovery that high-intensity exercise improves brain function in older adults. Human trials underway for MND drug.

Achievements of the centre

• Human trials underway for the use of non-invasive ultrasound therapy for symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, building on animal model discoveries.
• Discovery that high-intensity interval exercise improves brain function in older adults for up to five years.
• Identifying a mechanism in mitochondrial DNA that regulates how disease-causing mutations are inherited, to be explored next in humans.
• Evidence that half of the population will experience a mental health disorder by age 75.
• Using super resolution microscopy, revealed the role Synapsin 2a proteins play in organising synaptic vesicles within live neurons.

Key science sectors

More information about the sectors this centre is involved in:

• Biotechnology
• Engineering
• Health and medical
• Quantum and advanced technologies