AXREGEN is a Europe-wide collaborative 4-year research project started in late 2008 which seeks to develop new ways to address brain and nervous system damage with a strong emphasis on commercial exploitation and development of potential new therapies.

Treating structural damage to the central nervous system is one of the great remaining unmet needs in medicine. Damage to axons – nerve fibres – is common to many disorders: Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury for example.

Co-ordinated at the University of Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair, the AXREGEN consortium includes many of Europe’s prominent laboratories working on different aspects of axonal damage and repair at ten academic institutions and two industrial partners across the European Union.

Partners each exchange two graduate students between institutions. Each has their own training schedule encompassing a wide variety of technical and theoretical approaches and takes part in workshops across Europe. September 2009:  There is a PhD studentship available on this programme.