Graduate Research Projects

One of the primary objectives of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences is the provision of co-ordinated training for both medically qualified and non-medical graduates. Because the causes and treatment of brain dysfunction and damage are so varied, and the processes that determine whether or not the brain will recover from damage are equally diverse, the research training offered is strongly cross-disciplinary.  The strength of the Department is that it can offer training across the range of clinically-related neuroscience, with expertise drawn from its four constituents: Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair, Neurology Unit, Neurosurgery Unit and the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre.  Many graduate research projects span two or more of these units.

The Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre conducts research in the development and application of advanced imaging techniques using Positron Emission Tomography (GE Advance, GE cyclotron, CTI-Concorde microPET), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Siemens 3T wholebody MRI), and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. Active research programmes exist with opportunities for chemists, pharmacologists, biologists, physicists, computer scientists and clinicians. Examples include the development of novel radiopharmaceuticals, reconstruction algorithms, scanner modelling and kinetic modelling (PET), diffusion tensor analysis and modelling, sequence development (MRI), image possessing, fMRI. These techniques are used to study the development and treatment of a wide range of diseases including stroke, traumatic brain injury, dementia, diabetes, athersclerosis, and cancer.

We have over 60 PhD students with backgrounds in medical, biological and physical sciences, as well as an EU funded training programme in association with 10 other Universities.  Full information about PhD entry for 2013 will be found here.  Applications are now open.

Application of solid phase chemistry to the synthesis of PET tracers

Development of Cu64 labelled PET tracers

Development of markers of protein aggregates.