Edinburgh Human Brain Cluster receives significant funding to advance research

Professor Paul Brennan, Dr Claire Durrant, and Dr Sam Booker established the Edinburgh Living Human Brain group in 2017, aspiring to develop improved models of human disease. It now includes over 30 researchers from 10 research groups from across the UK. Their new project: Edinburgh Human Brain Cluster: Enhancing Investigation of Live Human Brain Slice Models with Deep Patient Phenotyping has been included in a £15.9 million group of projects funded by MRC, Wellcome, NC3Rs and Innovate UK. This initiative will enable the development of advanced, specific and highly reproducible human in vitro models.  It aims to redefine human-based research models for greater understanding of disease and the acceleration of new medicines. In vitro models will be made widely available to researchers in academia and industry and will help to reduce the reliance on animal models in research and drug development. 

You can come along and hear more about their unique collaboration -  using living human brain slices -  at the Edinburgh Neuroscience Public Christmas Lecture at 6pm on 4 December 2025 at the Edinburgh Futures Institute (further details and booking).