Australia opens new center to boost brain research

A new brain research center opened in Melbourne, Australia Friday, providing a new home for some of the greatest brain researchers to carry out groundbreaking research into disorders such as epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease. Seven hundred brain experts will work at the 227 million U.S. dollars Melbourne Brain Center, which opens on Friday as Australia 's biggest neuroscience hub. The center brings together scientists from major organizations including the Florey Neuroscience Institutes (FNI), one of the world's top 10 brain research centers, the Mental Health Research Institute and University of Melbourne. They will have access to some of the most sophisticated brain imaging machines available, as well as the top science labs in the center. According to stroke expert and FNI director Professor Geoffrey Donnan, the center would give researchers greater access to brain disorder patients being treated in public hospitals. Many of those patients, including stroke victims, will be taken to the center for high resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans with the results able to be shared by their doctors and the researchers. "It enables us to do research at a level we would not be able to undertake if these facilities weren't there," Professor Donnan told Australia Associated Press on Friday. "It is quite unique in that it is a one-stop shop arrangement whereby patients can come in and be imaged almost immediately." He said with one in five Australians living with brain disorders, research by the center into strokes, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, epilepsy, depression, addiction, head injuries and schizophrenia could play a vital part in future treatments.