Alzheimer's disease Very broadly speaking, our research is focused on the role that lipids (which are fats such as cholesterol) play in regulating both the normal function of neurons as well as their demise in diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. |
Bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder is a relatively common and debilitating psychiatric illness which affects around 1% of the Australian population. |
Child Injury Road trauma is a leading cause of death and disabling injury for children. We are studying how these injuries occur, and how changes to the types and design of restraints used by children can reduce serious injuries and death. |
Dyslexia Definitions of dyslexia are arbitrary, because reading ability is a continuum. Some people are good at it, and some are less good. In this way, dyslexia is not like measles where you either have it or you don’t. So while we can say how many Australians have measles, it is harder to say how many Australians have dyslexia. Any definition of ”dyslexia“ is picking a point on the line of ability between poor readers and skilled readers. |
Falls & Balance Human balance is thought to depend on the interaction of multiple sensory, motor and integrative systems. There is a growing body of evidence that indicates that functioning in sensory, motor and integration systems decline significantly with age and that impairment in these systems is associated with falling in elderly persons. |
Frontotemporal Dementia Frontotemporal Dementia was first described over 100 years ago by Arnold Pick and is often referred to as Pick's disease. It is a cause of dementia which is in some ways similar to Alzheimer's disease involving a progressive decline in a person's mental powers over a number of years. |
Motor Neurone Disease (MND)In the past 40 years there have been few significant changes to the neurophysiological investigation of patients with suspected neurological disorders. Motor and sensory nerve conduction studies, in combination with electromyography, have remained the method of choice for the clinician investigating peripheral nerve function. |
Nerve & Spinal Cord Injury While regeneration of some nerves has been known for a long time to be possible, particularly in pathways associated with touch and movement, it is clear that many injuries to the nervous system are followed by incomplete recovery or even increasing disability over time. |
Neural Injury Road trauma is a leading cause of death and disabling injury, for both adults and children. We are studying how these injuries occur, and how changes to the types and design of restraints used by children and passengers in the rear seat of cars can reduce serious injuries and death. |
Parkinson's disease Our research has a strong focus on Parkinson's disease. While the cause, or more likely, causes of Parkinson's disease is not known we do know that some factors increase the risk of an individual developing this disorder. |
Schizophrenia Schizophrenia causes profound withdrawal from family and friends, decreases in intellectual ability, hallucinations and delusions. Our view is that a derailment of the normal maturational program that occurs during the second decade of life in humans underlies schizophrenia. |
