McGill partners with leading Swiss neuroscience research group
Building on its worldwide reputation as a leader in neuroscience
research, Ď㽶ĘÓƵ today joined with two leading Swiss
research institutions – the University of Zurich (UZH) and the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ) – to enhance
neuroscience research in a host of areas, in fields that include
pain therapy, Alzheimer’s disease, synapse modelling and repair,
neuroimmunology and genetic mechanisms of brain diseases.
The collaboration, backed by $200,000 in annual funding for three
years, will see the institutions exchange scientists, develop
research projects, establish fellowships for exchanges of graduate
students, provide seed money for pilot studies and hold workshops
into a variety of neuroscience research areas.
The two Swiss institutions form the Neuroscience Center of Zurich
(ZNZ), which brings together 440 neuroscientists in clinical and
basic science research. Established in 1998, the ZNZ is one of the
first international programs of graduate studies of neuroscience in
Europe.
“We are delighted to advance our cutting-edge neuroscience research
through an international partnership with a leading network of
neuroscience researchers,” said McGill Principal and
Vice-Chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum who, accompanied by Dr. RĂ©mi
Quirion, Vice-Dean (Science and Strategic Initiatives) in McGill’s
Faculty of Medicine, signed the memorandum of understanding in
Switzerland. “Over the past years, McGill has developed significant
agreements with a number of important centres of neuroscience
research providing new impetus for advances in this crucial area of
medical care..”
In the last 100 years Zurich scientists have contributed
significantly to research on the nervous system, including work by
such leaders in the field as Auguste Forel, Constantin von Monakow,
Walter Rudolf Hess and Konrad Akert.
McGill’s history as a leader in neuroscience research, from the
legendary Wilder Penfield’s establishment of the Montreal
Neurological Institute and Hospital, is also widely known. Its
pioneering contributions are exemplified by Penfield’s maps of the
sensory and motor cortices of the brain; Donald Hebb’s hypothesis
of activity-dependent synaptic plasticity; Brenda Milner’s work on
the mechanisms of memory; Juda Hirsch Quastel’s studies in
neurochemistry; Heinz Edgar Lehmann’s pharmacological treatment of
schizophrenia; Theodore Sourkes’s proposal of dopamine replacement
therapy in Parkinson’s disease; Kris Krnejevic’s work in chemical
transmission; Ronald Melzack’s “gate control” theory of pain and
Albert Aguayo’s demonstration of the potential capacity for
re-growth of CNS axons, to name a few.
“This is a very exciting opportunity for us,” Dr. Quirion said.
“The Swiss neuroscience research centre is at the forefront of
where we are headed in better understanding the brain and the
central nervous system. Together with our interdisciplinary
Brain@McGill program, we will have the opportunity to make
significant advancements in research that will end up improving the
lives of millions around the world.”