Chapter 1
The Institute
In the early 2000s, The University of Queensland (UQ) began exploring the idea of a new research institute solely focused on the brain. No such centre existed in Australia. The opportunity to create neuroscience research institute from scratch enticed Professor Perry Bartlett to relocate to Brisbane to lead the charge.
Those were halcyon days because we had the university, the government, and philanthropy invested. The Institute came to life, thanks to the vision of, and financial support from, American businessman and philanthropist Chuck Feeney, the State Government lead by Premier Peter Beattie and the University of Queensland, under the late Professor John Hay, Vice Chancellor.
The original vision for UQ's Queensland Brain Institute was fundamentally to understand how the brain works and be able to develop new approaches to treating neurological diseases and mental disorders. On 9 October 2023, the UQ Senate endorsed the establishment of UQ's Queensland Brain Institute, and the rest, as they say, is history.
As the inaugural director, Perry recruited the best scientists from various disciplines - electrophysiology, neurology, biology, psychology, computational neuroscience - to explore questions about the brain side by side.
Perry also wanted to ensure researchers were working with different models, from honeybees to fish to humans, and with the latest technology to advance our knowledge of the brain.
In 2007, the research team moved into the purpose-built space and continued to expand. The Institute is now one of the world's leading centres in neuroscience, with several of the pivotal discoveries made here now being translated into the clinic.
Not only that, but it was an exciting time in neuroscience worldwide. From thinking of the brain as fixed, we had only recently shifted to the notion that it was malleable, even into adulthood. The Human Genome Project had opened avenues for finding genetic origins of neurological disorders, and imaging and recording brain architecture and activity was becoming more sophisticated
We recruited the best and brightest people form Australia and across the world, and that investment paid off. Many became leading figures in our understanding of the brain and the nervous system. They inspired younger scientists to join us, and many of them have gone on to lead labs around the world, one of QBI's enduring legacies.
An enduring legacy
Twenty years on, one of the original group leaders - Professor Pankaj Sah - is at the helm. He is one of the four leaders we profile in this special edition of the BRAIN magazine. In 2015, Pankaj became the director and began to build a stronger clinical face for the institute, encouraging the translation of research into practice. With his medical background, Pankaj appreciated the need for clinician-researcher collaborations.
"We must harness our biological understanding of the brain and the diseases and disorders that afflict it to develop new therapies, but we must also learn from the clinician's needs," Professor Pankaj Sah says.
UQ's Queensland Brain Institute originated at a fortuitous time - the junction of significant scientific discoveries in human health and unprecedented philanthropic and government investment in the biological sciences. However, it is the support of the community that continues to inspire us today.
The power of philanthropy
UQ's Queensland Brain Institute originated at a fortuitous time—the junction of significant scientific discoveries in human health and unprecedented
philanthropic and government investment in the biological sciences. However, it is the support of the community that continues to inspire our researchers today.
Research is an expensive business, and the timeline from original discovery to therapeutic outcomes is long. We remain as dedicated as ever to fundamental discovery and finding ways to treat brain diseases and disorders. Unfortunately, in Australia, Federal Government funding for research is at an all-time low, and we need the generous support we receive from the community and its advocacy for discovery science to help sustain our research efforts.
Research is an expensive business, and the timeline from original discovery to therapeutic outcomes is long. We remain as dedicated as ever to fundamental discovery and finding ways to treat brain diseases and disorders. Unfortunately, in Australia, Federal Government funding for research is at an all-time low, and we need the generous support we receive from the community and its advocacy for discovery science to help sustain our research efforts," Professor Sah says.
As we embrace the age of advanced technology, statistical and computational methods, such as machine learning, rise to the fore. An interdisciplinary approach to understanding the brain remains as valid now as it was twenty years ago. But today, teams of mathematicians, statisticians, computational scientists, biologists, clinicians and professionals from emerging disciplines pursue neuroscience unimaginable two decades ago.
What of the next twenty years? In the final chapter, we explore this question. Suffice to say that over the next decades, the Institute will continue to build a more comprehensive understanding of the complex organ that makes us human. With six clinical trials underway, we are equally confident that our research will help to revolutionise healthcare, education and health policy in the coming years, with the Institute remaining a powerhouse of scientific discovery. scientific discovery.
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