James Fawcett, Joe Herbert

Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair

The Centre is the coordinator for the AXREGEN project.

It is part of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge. The ultimate aim of work in the Centre is to understand, and eventually to alleviate and repair damage to the brain and spinal cord which results from injury or neurodegenerative disease.

The Centre was formed to bring Cambridge scientists working across the many fields of modern neuroscience together in cross-disciplinary research efforts directed at the problems associated with preventing or repairing the effects of brain damage. The approach being taken is both a long term one of trying to understand the underlying disease mechanisms, and a more immediate examination of strategies which might have potential for clinical application. Towards this end a major goal of the Centre is to provide a forum for interactions between investigators in the clinical and basic neurosciences.

The focal point of the Centre is the ED Adrian building on the University Forvie site at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. In this location, the main activities of the Centre are well placed to take advantage of, and contribute to, the rich and lively neuroscience environment in Cambridge. The building is immediately next to the Institute of Public Health, the West Forvie Building hosting the Laboratory of Regenerative Medicine, the Herchel Smith Building, and close to the Regional Neurosciences Centre for East Anglia, situated on the south side of Addenbrooke’s Hospital.

In addition to providing research facilities for principal investigators working within the building there are strong collaborations with other departments and institutions in Cambridge. The Centre provides a clinical testing areas for investigators to evaluate ambulatory patients involved in research studies The Centre is committed to training future generations of investigators by providing a co-ordinated training programme for PhD students and post-doctoral fellows.

Research

The Cambridge University Centre for Brain Repair is a translational neuroscience institute whose target diseases are spinal cord injury, stroke, head injury, Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma. It includeds 17 scientific groups and over 100 researchers, ranging from basic scientists to clinicians. The Fawcett laboratory works mainly on the role of the extracellular matrix in the repair of the damaged CNS. Current work is examining the role proteoglycans in the prevention of axon regeneration, the extracellular matrix structures that modulate plasticity with ageing and after injury, and the biology of integrins in axon regeneration. J. Fawcett is director of the Cambridge University Centre for Brain Repair.

James Fawcett	Centre Chairman	Axon regeneration, plasticity
Joe Herbert	Professor	Adult neurogenesis, director of the BRC PhD program
Jessica Kwok	Post-doc	CNS extracellular matrix
Melissa Andrews	Post-doc	Integrins and axon regeneration
Richard Eva	Post-doc	Integrins and axon regeneration
Gunnar Dick	Post-doc	Spinal cord repair

Elske Franssen   Post-doc             Integrins and axon regeneration

Selected publications
1. Carulli D, Deepa SS, Fawcett JW (2007) Upregulation of aggrecan, link protein 1 and hyaluronan synthases during formation of perineuronal nets in the rat cerebellum. J Comp Neurol 501:83-94.

2. Deepa SS, Carulli D, Galtrey C, Rhodes K, Fukuda J, Mikami T, Sugahara K, Fawcett JW (2006) Composition of perineuronal net extracellular matrix in rat brain: A different disaccharide composition for the net-associated proteoglycans. J Biol Chem 281:17789-17800.
3. Properzi F, Carulli D, Asher RA, Muir E, Camargo LM, van Kuppevelt TH, ten Dam GB, Furukawa Y, Mikami T, Sugahara K, Toida T, Geller HM, Fawcett JW (2005) Chondroitin 6-sulphate synthesis is up-regulated in injured CNS, induced by injury-related cytokines and enhanced in axon-growth inhibitory glia. Eur J Neurosci 21:378-390.

Graduate training

Cambridge University has a Graduate School in Life Sciences, which oversees graduate training. This sets the overall standards expected, and defines both generic and specific skill training. Each Department has its own Graduate Training Committee, which is responsible for delivering training at departmental level. Cambridge has around 6000 graduate students, about 35% of the total student number (the highest proportion in the UK). There are extensive graduate training programmes, at University, Departmental, and College level. Each student has a supervisor, a co-supevisor, a Departmental Director of Training, and a College Tutor. Cambridge is currently the top-ranking University in the UK in both teaching and research. It specialises in small-group teaching, and in exposing its students to cutting-edge research ideas and experiences. A recent study showed that graduate students were authors on 25% of all papers considered the most significant over a 4 year period. The Cambridge area is the largest biotech region in Europe and there are extensive contacts between these companies and the University.