Director's Message

The establishment of the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) in late October 2003 was the result of a confluence of ideas and foresight by three community leaders – The University of Queensland’s former Vice-Chancellor, John Hay, the founder of Atlantic Philanthropies, Chuck Feeney, and the former Premier of Queensland, Peter Beattie.  They provided the impetus and the resources for a $63 million state-of-the-art building which was completed in late 2007, giving me the unprecedented opportunity to recruit a faculty of world-class neuroscientists.

It all began a year earlier, in 2002, when I relocated my group from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, where I was head of the Division of Neurobiology and Development, to lay the foundations for a new Institute as the inaugural Chair in Molecular Neuroscience. Although the funding for such an Institute was uncertain at the time, the Vice-Chancellor’s clear and steadfast vision that neuroscience was an area of research in which UQ should excel and become an international leader was compelling. He quickly engaged the Atlantic Philanthropies and the Queensland Government in this concept, as a result of which QBI was born.

A biosciences revolution

Today, QBI takes its place alongside the Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) and the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), as part of the revolution that occurred in the biosciences at The University of Queensland under the leadership of Professor John Hay. QBI was established with the specific aim of discovering the fundamental mechanisms that control higher brain functions, such as learning and memory, as this is the last scientific frontier to be conquered if we are to fully understand human behaviour and that elusive human characteristic of consciousness or self-awareness.

Moreover, I believe that such an understanding will lead to revolutionary new therapeutics to combat the neurological and mental illnesses that ever-increasingly affect both our young and aged population. As a step towards achieving these goals, I am delighted to report that, since its establishment, QBI has attracted some of the best neuroscientists from within Australia and from overseas. Professor Pankaj Sah joined the Institute shortly before its formal inception and has been enormously important in its growth and success. In recognition of his pivotal role and his outstanding scientific leadership, he has been appointed as the Deputy Director for Research.

Leading research staff recruited

We have also enticed exceptional scientists such as Professor Linda Richards and Dr Robyn Wallace back to Australia from the USA, as well as attracting several distinguished international scientists such as Professor Geoffrey Goodhill, Dr Massimo Hilliard, Associate Professor Bruno van Swinderen, Dr Timothy Bredy and Associate Professor Stephen Williams. Since arriving at QBI, these faculty members have established new groups and have proven highly successful in attracting both Australian and international funding.

We have also been joined by the recipient of the 2006 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science, Professor Mandyam Srinivasan, who heads QBI’s visual and sensory neuroscience research team, and Professor Jason Mattingley, who leads QBI’s cognitive neuroscience team. Although working in widely different animal models and using a range of different techniques, all these scientific groups focus on understanding important mechanisms that regulate the development of a functional brain.

Strong research links with China

In 2010, a growing research bond between the neuroscience communities of China and Queensland culminated in the formation of a Joint Laboratory of Neuroscience and Cognition incorporating researchers at QBI, Griffith University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institutes of Biophysics and Psychology.  The aim of this program is to identify the key mechanisms regulating brain plasticity and to translate this understanding into promoting normal functions such as learning, memory and cognition as well as ameliorating diseases such as dementia, depression, schizophrenia and neurotrauma.  A second exciting alliance, forged with colleagues at the Second Military Medical University at Shanghai’s Changzheng Hospital, underpins the development of a Human Neurogenetics Research Program which aims to improve therapeutic outcomes for neurological diseases.

Science of Learning Centre

Closer to home, the establishment of the Science of Learning Centre (SoLC) has further underlined QBI’s commitment to revealing the fundamental mechanisms of learning.  Its mission will be to unlock the basic science of how brains connect and retain new information through to understanding how children and adults learn in the educational and training arena.  SoLC co-directors Professor Pankaj Sah and Professor Ottmar Lipp said that combining existing knowledge of best-practice teaching with state-of-the-art research in psychology and neuroscience was the most effective way of translating discoveries to improved strategies for enhancing learning in children and adults.  Eventually up to 20 QBI neuroscientists will work with educators, psychologists and other scientists in the interdisciplinary Centre, which is affiliated with the Australian Council of Educational Research (ACER).

Professor Perry Bartlett FAA
Director
Queensland Brain Institute

Email: pa@qbi.uq.edu.au

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