Wellcome Trust neuroscience initiative to facilitate meeting of minds

3 April 2007

The Wellcome Trust has today announced the three recipients of its pilot Masterclasses in Clinical Neuroscience awards, aimed at bringing together basic researchers and clinical scientists in the area of key clinical problems in neuroscience. Inaugural recipients of awards under the scheme will focus on motor neurone disease, stroke and mood disorders.

The Masterclasses aim to provide a forum for neuroscientists to explore the complexities of each others' disciplines and approaches, particularly encouraging junior researchers at postgraduate and postdoctoral level to participate, and conveying the perspective of patients and carers, whose insights into the disorders provide a valuable dimension to the scientists' research.

Professor Hugh Perry from the University of Southampton, Joint Chair of the Neuroscience and Mental Health Funding Committee at the Wellcome Trust, believes there is a need to foster links between disciplines.

"If basic scientists, who may have only a superficial or text book view of a particular condition, understand more about diseases affecting the brain, this will offer new ways of applying the knowledge," says Professor Perry. "Similarly, clinicians who have to deal with diseases need to learn about new techniques and concepts that may be of value in treatment of a given disease. The more communication there is between clinical and basic scientists the better – it seems to me to be a win-win scenario."

Applicants to the Masterclass scheme were required to work in partnership with a learned society. The inaugural recipients of the awards are:

• Dr Kevin Talbot from the University of Oxford, in association with the Motor Neuron Disease Association and the British Neuroscience Association – 'Controversies in motor neuron disease research and practice'
• Dr Richard Greenwood from Homerton University Hospital, London, working with the Stroke Association and British Neuroscience Association – 'The future of restorative neuroscience in stroke rehabilitation'
• Dr R Hamish McAllister-Williams from Newcastle University, with support from the Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, and the British Association for Psychopharmacology – 'Tackling cognitive dysfunction in affective disorders'.

Organisers of the Masterclasses are encouraged to be innovative in their approach and to provide both tangible outcomes and a method of disseminating these outcomes. The proposed formats include use of video narratives, an interactive website and a satellite meeting for patients. Outcomes will include the development of consensus statements to advise on the best ways to diagnose and treat the disorders, the establishment of a special interest group to promote collaborative research, and the use of multimedia to disseminate the key messages to the widest possible audience.

"There is a real need to showcase some of the huge strengths of UK basic science to clinicians and also to patients, who may not find it easy to know what's going on in the labs and perhaps even harder to figure out whether and how this might eventually apply to them," says Professor Nick Rawlins from the University of Oxford, Joint Chair of the Neuroscience and Mental Health Funding Committee.

The first of the Masterclasses is expected to take place in September 2007.

Contact

Craig Brierley
Media Officer
Wellcome Trust
T +44 (0)20 7611 7329
E c.brierley@wellcome.ac.uk

Notes for editors

The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending around £500 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing.