Previous Awards RS MacDonald Seedcorn Funding fosters interdisciplinary research CDP = Centre for Dementia Prevention, EMC = Euan MacDonald Centre for MND Research, JBRL = Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory, MMEC = Muir Maxwell Epilepsy Centre, PWC = Patrick Wild Centre for Research into Autism, Fragile X Syndrome, and Intellectual DisabilitiesOctober 2018In the October 2018 funding round we received 30 applications requesting a total of £143,360. We were able to fund 10 proposals, allocating £41,825. 36% of funded proposals were from postdoctoral researchers.Cathy Abbott (Genetics & Molecular Medicine, plus EMC, MMEC, PWC), Using a mouse model to explore the link between epileptic encephalopathy and neurodegenerationAntonis Asiminis (Discovery Brain Sciences, plus PWC), Prey-capture: an ethologically relevant paradigm to study cognitive and sensory processing in rodentsCatherina Becker, (Discovery Brain Sciences, plus EMC), Movers and shakers - the role of microglia in restorative neurogenesis after spinal cord injuryDavid Breen (Clinical Brain Sciences), Cerebrospinal α-synuclein RT-QuIC in multiple system atrophy: a clinical and neuropathological studyAmanda Drake (Cardiovascular Sciences, plus JBRL), Investigating the role of early life stress on epigenetic dysregulation in the hypothalamusJenna Gregory and Marcelo Barria (Clinical Brain Sciences, plus EMC), Investigating the clinico-pathological correlation between differential folding conformations of TDP-43 and disease progression in amyotrophic lateral sclerosisMatthew Horrocks (Chemistry), The time evolution of synapses at the nanoscale using super-resolution microscopyYu-Ting Huang (Discovery Brain Sciences, plus EMC), Developing in utero gene therapy to treat spinal muscular atrophy (SMA)Declan King (Discovery Brain Sciences), Equipment for human brain embedding for Transmission Electron Microscopy – for use on Lothian Birth Cohort tissue and by collaborators in Edinburgh NeuroscienceBhuvaneish Selvaraj (Clinical Brain Sciences, plus EMC), C9ORF72 astrocytes induced transcriptome dysregulation in motor neurons March 2018In the March 2018 funding round we received 15 applications requesting a total of £72,354. We were able to fund 10 proposals, allocating £33,544:Yanick Crow (Genetics & Molecular Medicine), Study of Mendelian-induced NNROS dysfunction in human brain tissueChristos Gkogkas (Discovery Brain Sciences, plus PWC), High resolution structural studies of an intrinsically disordered proteinCallister Harper (Discovery Brain Sciences, plus MMEC and PWC), Investigating changes to synaptic protein turnover in Drosophila models of neurodegenerative disordersMandy Jackson (Discovery Brain Sciences, plus EMC), Determining the molecular diversity of cerebellar Purkinje cellsSarah Jaekel (Regenerative Medicine), Linking regenerative pathological measures with Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Multiple Sclerosis Patients to aid prediction of prognosisNeil Mabbott (Roslin Institute), Redefining the role of the microglia in CNS prion disease pathogenesisKristin Nicodemus (Genetics & Molecular Medicine), Examining Social Networks in Mental Ill Health using the TalkLife DatabaseGerard Thompson (Clinical Brain Sciences), Synaptic Density Imaging with Positron Emission Tomography in Large, Non-Primate MammalsThanasis Tsanas (Usher Institute), Objective longitudinal assessment of Parkinson’s disease using a smartwatch wearable sensor: quantifying activity, sleep, and circadian variability symptomsAntonine Vallatos (Clinical Brain Sciences), Probing small vessel disease related changes in blood-brain- barrier permeability: a novel protocol for quantitative MRI- tissue correlation October 2017In the October 2017 funding round we received 30 applications requesting a total of £139,422. We were able to fund 10 proposals, allocating £31,100: Claire Davies (Reproductive Health), Investigating sex differences in microglia function during central nervous system remyelination: implications for therapeutic strategies for multiple sclerosisJill Fowler (Discovery Brain Sciences, plus CDP), Investigating the acute and chronic effects of mild stroke on cerebral blood flow levels with arterial spin labelling: correlation with neuroinflammationChris Henstridge (Discovery Brain Sciences, plus CDP and EMC), Identifying alterations in the synaptic proteome of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis patientsRaphael Hesse (Discovery Brain Sciences, plus CDP and EMC), Increasing array tomography output by streamlining the analysis workflowMatt Livesey (Discovery Brain Sciences, plus EMC), Mechanistic exploration of human synaptic plasticity. Ruth Morgan and Andrew McKechanie (Clinical Brain Sciences, plus PWC) Glucocorticoid metabolism and the role of Carbonyl Reductase 1 in Down Syndrome.Tom Pratt (Discovery Brain Scienes, plus PWC), Using human brain organoids to study neurodevelopmental components of the 16p11.2 CNV phenotype.Gülsen Sürmeli (Discovery Brain Sciences), Activity tagging of neurons for calcium imaging applicationsTom Wishart (The Roslin Institute, plus CDP and EMC), MRI of a novel CRISPR generated sheep model for a human childhood neurodegenerative diseaseLida Zoupi (Regenerative Medicine), Automated tissue processing for electron microscopy March 2017The inaugural call (March 2017) of the RS MacDonald Seedcorn Fund resulted in 26 applications requesting a total of £117,301. We were able to fund 11, allocating £43,707:Maqsood Ahmed (Regenerative Medicine), Defining the role of extracellular matrix proteins in the glioblastoma stem cell niche.Javier Escudero, Michael Young, Ailsa McLellan and Mark Richardson (Engineering, plus MMEC), EEG networks as a potential predictor for treatment response to antiepileptic drugs. Alfredo Gonzalez-Sulser (Integrative Physiology, plus MMEC), Wireless Optogenetics for Epilepsy.Ewout Groen (Integrative Physiology, plus EMC), Developing a novel method for cell type-specific analysis of local translation.Mandy Jackson (Integrative Physiology, EMC), Investigating a link between glutamate transporter dysregulation and translational control.Paul Skehel (Integrative Physiology, plus EMC), Proteomic characterization of new rat MND model.Anna Williams and Colin Smith (Clinical Brain Science, plus EMC), The Macro-Imager - recording the gross pathology of donated human brains and spinal cords in the post mortem room.Sergiy Sylantyev, Noboru Komiyama and Melanie Stefan (Clinical Brain Sciences, plus PWC), Experimental investigations and modelling of NMDA receptors potentiation generated by mGluRs via different pathwaysTomonori Takeuchi (Cognitive & Neural Systems), Optogenetic activation of potential novel drug-target genes for memory enhancementThomas Theil (Integrative [hysiology, plus PWC), Characterising INPP5E‘s role in human forebrain development using brain organoidsAdam Waldman (Clinical Brain Sciences), Multimodal MRI/PET in adult glioma This article was published on 2024-12-16