Our Research
Clinical and Molecular Neuroscience
Clinical and Molecular Neuroscience is a strategic research cluster within the Department of Psychiatry and the School of Medicine, TCD, and its partner hospitals, St. James' Hospital, The Adelaide and Meath Hospitals incorporating the National Children's Hospital, Harcourt Street (AMNCH), St. Patrick's Hospital and the HSE community clinics and services in the HSE South Western region. It has close associations with the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and Molecular Medicine Ireland.
Personnel
The cluster consists of psychiatrists, neurologists, gerontologists, neuropsychologists, neurophysiologists, neural engineers, geneticists, molecular biologists, neuroradiologists and statisticians. It includes full and part time University personnel, and full time clinicians involved in collaborative research and clinical teaching.
Clinical disorders
The cluster includes research in neurodevelopmental child and adolescent disorders; autism, Asperger's syndrome, attention deficit hyperactive disorder; adult neuropsychiatric disorders; schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, depression, anxiety; disorders of brain aging and neurodegeneration, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, Down's syndrome; neurological disorders; epilepsy, mobility disorders and falls, Parkinson's disease, stroke, syncope, Friedreich's ataxia and multiple sclerosis.
Methodologies
Phenomenology, clinical epidemiology, clinical research, treatment trials, cell and molecular biology, population genetics, molecular genetics, genomics, proteomics, structural and functional neuroimaging, neural engineering, neurophysiology, neuropsychology and neurocognition.
Research subgroups
The main groups within the cluster are the Neuropsychiatric Genetics Research Group, AMNCH Neuroimaging and Biomarkers Programme, Depression Neurobiology Research Group, Clinical and Molecular Neurology and Aging Research Neuroscience Group.
Strategy
To develop synergies and interactions between disciplines, activities and infrastructures. To develop collaborations with Irish and international academic and industry partners. To develop academic neurology, academic old age psychiatry, population genetics, biostatistical genomics and bioinformatics, functional/imaging genomics, molecular biology and neural engineering. To work with and develop epidemiological and population studies; to develop a systems biology approach and the advance methodologies to support discoveries in disorder pathogenesis, biomarker and translational research and biopsychosocial interventions and rehabilitations to improve patient care and treatment outcome.