A major new UK research centre has been launched to develop innovative device-based therapies for a range of brain disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, dementia, stroke, and childhood epilepsy.
The Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence (MRC CoRE) in Restorative Neural Dynamics will receive up to £50 million in funding over the next 14 years.
The centre will bring together leading academics, clinicians, and industry partners to investigate ‘neural dynamics’.
Neural Dynamics is the intricate and evolving patterns of activity between networks of nerve cells in the brain that underpin thought, movement and behaviour.
By better understanding how these dynamics are disrupted in neurological conditions, researchers hope to develop novel interventions, including implantable and wearable devices, that could significantly improve symptoms and quality of life for patients.
The Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence (MRC CoRE) in Restorative Neural Dynamics will receive up to £50 million in funding
Professor Andy Jackson, Professor of Neural Interfaces at Newcastle University, said: “The development of wearable and implantable technologies for brain disorders is a central theme of Newcastle’s Centre for Transformative Neuroscience, and this UK-wide partnership will accelerate the delivery of new treatments to patients.
“Restoring healthy brain dynamics, across a range of devastating conditions, presents challenges that can only be overcome through close cooperation between scientists, engineers and clinicians, informed by patient priorities and regulatory frameworks. I look forward to working with the MRC CoRE team to deliver this exciting vision for the next generation of brain stimulation therapies.”
Initially, the centre’s work will focus on improving movement, memory, sleep, and seizure control in people affected by brain disorders.
In the longer term, researchers aim to use devices to reorganise brain circuits and slow clinical progression by influencing the mechanisms that govern how connections between nerve cells strengthen or weaken over time.
The multidisciplinary programme will involve computational modelling, preclinical research, and studies using human data, integrated with the design and development of hardware and software for neural devices.
A major new UK research centre has been launched to develop innovative device-based therapies for a range of brain disorders
The MRC CoRE will collaborate closely with clinical services, research charities, regulatory agencies and the neurotechnology industry.
Among the industry partners is Amber Therapeutics, a UK-based medical technology company headquartered in Oxford.
Amber specialises in bioelectronic medicines and implantable devices for chronic conditions, and in 2024, partnered with NHS clinicians to deliver the UK’s first-in-human trial of an implanted brain stimulation device in a child with epilepsy.
Professor Peter Magill, Director of the new MRC CoRE in Restorative Neural Dynamics at the University of Oxford, said: “Medical devices delivering brain stimulation can target disturbed neural dynamics with high precision and accuracy. But their advantages for therapy have not been fully realised because the link between neural dynamics and the clinical use of devices is often weak or missing.
“We can achieve the step change needed by seizing untapped opportunities to exploit dynamics with next-generation devices so that healthy neural dynamics are restored for improved therapeutic outcomes. Gaining a better understanding of how neural circuits work from moment to moment, and how this goes wrong in brain disorders, is key to this. Our research approach is centred on, and will involve, patients.”
To ensure new devices can be adopted into NHS care pathways, the centre’s researchers will focus on developing clinically effective, scalable, and cost-efficient technologies.
Top image: Brain simulation device