Pathway to a GW4 collaboration

Brain networks in health and disease

GW4 Initiator - Partners

• Dr Marc Goodfellow (Exeter) - Lecturer in Maths– use of mathematical models to understand complex biological

networks in diseases such as epilepsy

• Dr Matt Jones (Bristol) - Reader in Cognitive Neurophysiology

– In vivo recording of rhythmic neuronal activity in cognitive processes and behaviour using animal models of AD, schizophrenia and Downs syndrome

• Professor Vincenzo Crunelli (Cardiff) - Professor of Neuroscience

– cellular and network mechanisms in the thalamus and cortex during sleep and absence epilepsy using in vitro and in vivo models.

• Me (Bath) - Professor of Neuropharmacology– understanding mechanisms of cortical network excitability in normal

and pathological conditions such as epilepsy

Original proposal• …….to set up a series of meetings through which we can develop novel

collaborations to study large scale networks in health and disease…

• …including, but not limited to theoretical, clinical, and experimental research into large scale brain networks underlying memory formation, learning, sleep, dementia, epilepsy, schizophrenia and stress…

• ….exploring these networks in an iterative way using theoretical and experimental approaches to reveal novel insights into …brain dysfunction…

• ……to apply for £20K for a series of 4 workshops, set across the 4 institutes…

We actually applied for £14,560 a one day workshop and a two day

retreat Funding approved in September – to be spent by December!

The initiator application

• 1. Name of proposed GW4 Community

• 2. Applicants

• 3. Start date - end date - amount requested

• 4. Please outline the research opportunity or grand challenge area that you intend to address through this collaboration and why

• 5. Please describe how you intend to use the funding - detailing what activities, their anticipated occurrence and the anticipated outcome of your activity

• 6. Please describe the current position of your collaboration

• 7. Costs

Done in about 10 days via email

Initiator Assessment Panel

Chair: Nick Talbot (Exeter)

Panel Members

Jeremy Tavare (Bristol) Biochemistry

Lorna Colquhoun (Bristol) RDO

Jane Boggan (Cardiff) Strategic Development

Malcolm Mason (Cardiff) Medicine

Jonathan Knight (Bath) Physics

Tim Ibell (Bath)Architecture

Anne Barlow (Exeter) Law

Andrew Thompson (Exeter) History

The first event• ~40 participants - only 2 from

Bath, 4 from Cardiff, 8 from Exeter

• Structured and externally facilitated to derive focused project areas

• 3 principal areas identified by popularity!

– Oscillations and network structure in health and disease

– Stimuli and perturbations to brain networks.

– Theoretical and experimental modalities for multi-scale brain dynamics

– Network infrastructure and maximising collaborations across GW4

The next stepTwo day retreat - January 2015

18 participantsTwo Bridges Hotel

Dartmoor Aims

• Generate at least one clear research proposal with which to apply for the GW4 accelerator fund

• Draft this into as advanced a form of the proposal as possible

• Identify any other specific grant applications to develop

• Discuss plans for sustaining the community

Outcomes of retreat – Accelerator application• Project based on investigating co-morbid network

changes in Epilepsy and Alzheimer's Disease

• Approximately £70,000 funding bid for 6 months

• Do networks extracted from EEG in dementia patients lead to aberrant synchronisation of dynamical models, compared to controls?

• Do networks extracted from EEG-like recordings from animal models of dementia lead to aberrant synchronisation of dynamical models, compared to controls?

• Can network differences already identified in epilepsy patients also be recorded from EEG-like measurements in an animal model of epilepsy?

• Can we use such these experimental data to predict perturbations to the network that can ameliorate the disease phenotype?

To date

• Initiator grant developed, submitted and awarded

• Ideas workshop held

• Focused retreat held

• Plan for accelerator determined, draft proposal prepared

• Report for Initiator prepared and submitted

• Lifecycle award prepared and submitted

‘bespoke events facilitated by an external consultant…. designed specifically for each communities need, these sessions can include sandpits, how to develop good communication and setting up working processes for the collaboration..’ - we aim to gain more clinical involvement