A Grey Matter

QBI researcher Dr Nela Durisic is fascinated with how the brain coordinates electrical activity and how faulty electrical communication can lead to brain disorders like epilepsy. By observing the architecture and function of single molecules and their intricate connections, the Durisic lab aims to discover what leads to genetic epilepsy and uncover new ways to treat it. This knowledge may also adv...

QBI researcher Professor Frederic Meunier is passionate about using highly innovative technology to discover how our brain cells communicate. His lab uses advanced nanoscale imaging (super-resolution microscopy) to observe single molecules in living neurons as they perform their function. In collaboration with mathematicians, the Meunier lab is analysing how small mutations can affect the nanoscal...

Boots, beanies and all, QBI researcher Dr Adam Walker is in the fight to find a cure for motor neurone disease (MND). His team uses genetic editing techniques and rapidly advancing technology to study what’s happening at the early onset of disease. By understanding the biological processes that cause MND, they hope to design new therapies that prevent or halt its progression.   In this inspiring c...

How do we make choices? And what happens in our brain when we do? Cognitive Neuroscientist Professor Jason Mattingley and his team study human brain activity and structure and how people pay attention, prioritise information and decide. With adolescence being a time of great change, the team is fascinated with how young people assess risk and develop an understanding of what’s at stake. It’s one o...

Dr Nathalie Dehorter and her team study interneurons (the neurons controlling the excitation-inhibition balance in the central nervous system) during brain development and in disorders like autism, schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease. Nathalie aims to identify early changes in neuronal activity and connectivity that give rise to impairment in the adult brain. She hopes that a better understandin...

Professor Peter Nestor is a clinician-researcher interested in memory and cognition. As a doctor, he diagnoses people living with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's. By studying patients, he hopes to enhance our understanding of the brain areas most vulnerable to neurodegeneration to improve diagnosis and therapies. In this fascinating conversation, Peter delves into: Why we don&...

Exercise has many benefits for our bodies, including our brains. So, can we replicate the positive effects of exercise to boost new neurons in the adult brain? Dr Tara Walker thinks so and has dedicated her research career to discovering how. Tara was one of the first researchers recruited to QBI when it opened in 2003. She swapped plant biotechnology for neurogenesis  research, and it has taken h...

QBI researcher Dr Margaret Moore discusses the fascinating and dynamic process of paying attention. Amidst the sensory overload around us, the brain takes as many shortcuts as possible to process information. To save energy, the brain efficiently chooses to process only what it expects is most helpful, most relevant, and most important to us. It also relies on predictions of what it expects to see...

QBI researcher Professor Tim Bredy believes his team are on the verge of something big. They are studying the role of ribonucleic acid (RNA), which is present in all living things, including viruses. RNA is structurally like DNA but it is involved in multiple functions, including brain development, learning and memory.    In this conversation, Tim explores:    RNA’s functions in our body, includin...

Ever wondered what’s happening in your brain while you sleep and why you need sleep?    QBI researchers Professor Bruno van Swinderen and Dr Sally Staton approach sleep from different ends of the scientific spectrum, but both are fascinated by how sleep helps us learn and respond to the world.    In this conversation, they delve into thought-provoking topics like:    how sleep impacts a child’s br...

This episode features an insightful conversation between Sallyanne Atkinson AO, former Lord Mayor of Brisbane and current member of the QBI advisory, and Professor Emeritus Perry Bartlett AO, founding Director of the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) . You'll hear about the origins of the Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research (CJCADR), the power of philanthropy and some of the researc...

You probably have heard of a pacemaker – a small device which is implanted in the chest to help control the heartbeat for people living with heart conditions. But did you know similar technology is being used to treat several brain disorders? Today we are joined by Professor Peter Silburn AM, neurologist, researcher and pioneer in deep brain stimulation (DBS). DBS technology delivers a continuous...

In recent years, we’ve seen a growing number of sportspeople speak out about their experiences of head injuries, and concussions are forcing more and more athletes to take a break from or cut short their sporting careers.  And research on the brains of former athletes is raising awareness of the long-term neurological damage that can be caused by repeated, apparently minor knocks to the head.  Ass...

People living with dementia often have disturbed sleep – even years prior to experiencing any other symptoms.  Unfortunately, as is the case with many risk factors, we don’t know whether this is a cause or a symptom, and it could in fact be both.  Professor Elizabeth Coulson specialises in dementia research here at the Queensland Brain Institute and she’s heading up a team who are looking into the...

The development of the brain is a fascinating process, with complex brain connections being made rapidly as a foetus grows inside its mother’s womb. Darryl Eyles, Professor of neurobiology, is studying how known risk factors for certain mental disorders can change the way the brain develops. In this episode we explore how the developing brain can adapt to risk factors for mental health disorders a...

How can you study the human brain at the cell level, when you can't get inside to see these tiny processes in action? Well, you build your own brain in a dish of course! Organoids, or mini brains, are an exciting new area of neuroscience an have many applications, including personalised medicine. We talk to Professor Enrst Wolvetang, who's using this cutting-edge research to understand h...

In this episode, we examine consciousness – what is it, when does it begin, and how might sleep and dreams be the key to answering these questions. Professor Bruno van Swinderen sheds more light on this fascinating topic.

Queensland Chief Scientist, Professor Hugh Possingham and Queensland Brain Institute Director, Professor Pankaj Sah talk about the lessons we can learn from conservation science and neuroscience, how to influence decision-makers, and why maths is so important! CREDITS Produced,  hosted and edited by Carolyn Barry

When we pay attention to something, our minds are selectively concentrating on a discrete piece of information, while choosing to ignore other perceivable elements. Dr Anthony Harris is an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Fellow at the Queensland Brain Institute and an expert on human attention. He discusses what goes on in the brain when we are giving something our full attention, and...

Almost 500,000 Australians have some kind of dementia, the most common form of which is Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, there is no cure, and only one drug was recently approved for treatment. Researchers here at the Queensland Brain Institute are working on an ultrasound treatment that may offer the best chance to hit the damaged neurons and slow the progression of this terrible disease. We talk...

Artist Sam Leach’s work focuses on a connection between science and art, in a more modern twist. He uses AI to compose art that he then paints. It’s a blending of two fields in a similar way that researchers are blending machine learning and neuroscience, to push the limits of AI. We talk also talk to neuroscientist Emeritus Professor Srini Srinivasan, whose work inspired Sam. CREDIT Hosted, produ...

How do you make sure clinical treatment of people with brain injury, diseases and disorders is best informed by neuroscience? This is where the worlds of neuroscience and psychology collide. In this episode, we talk to Professor Gail Robinson, clinical neurospsychologist at the Queensland Brain Institute.

Paralysed people walking again and direct brain to brain communication aren’t just ideas in the realm of science fiction. We hear from Dr Lilach Avitan, a Computational Neuroscientist at UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute who investigates how our brain processes information in order to understand normal and abnormal brain function. We chat about her start in the Israeli air force, the so called ‘Jenn...

The brain is one of the most complex things that scientists study, with trillions of connections between brain cells responsible for our thoughts and actions and baseline functions. You’d think that if you zoom down and look into the cells and how they talk to each other, that things would be simpler but that’s not the case. Down at the nanoscale level of the brain is an entire tiny intricate worl...

More and more we are finding out about the peculiar symptoms of coronavirus that make it such a nasty bug. Many of these symptoms, especially those with a long tail of illness seem to point to effects on the nervous system: the loss of smell, dizziness, confusion, strokes, muscle weakness, fatigue. New research born out of collaborations with virologists and neuroscience here at QBI has shown that...