Dr Anthony Hannan wins coveted British Council Eureka Prize for Inspiring Science

The Integrative Neuroscience Facility would like to congratulate Dr Anthony Hannan for winning a prestigious "Australian Museum Eureka Prize" for his work on Huntington's disease.

Dr Hannan won the $10,000 British Council Eureka Prize for Inspiring Science at the 2005 awards held recently.  This was the result of his work on environmental factors affecting genetic brain disorders.  Dr Hannan has employed the facilities of the Integrative Neuroscience Facility (INF) in the course of this study.  Most of the behavioural studies were undertaken in the INF facilities at the Howard Florey Institute.

Dr Hannan has used recent advances in neurobiology to prove that environmental, sensory and cognitive stimulation, particularly in the cerebral cortex can delay the onset and progression of Huntington's disease in genetically modified mice that carry the gene responsible for Huntington's disease.  Tests carried out at the INF compared mice that lived in a stimulating environment with those in an unstimulating environment.  100% of mice in the unstimulating environment developed symptoms of Huntington's in 18 weeks.  Only 15% of those in the stimulating environment developed symptoms over the same time period.

The INF would like to thank Dr Hannan for the opportunity to assist in this ground breaking research and wish him well on his goal of using this information to develop a new form of therapeutic drug to enhance or mimic the environmental impact on Huntington's.

INF at AusBiotech 2005

The Integrative Neuroscience facility will be exhibiting at the AusBiotech 2005 conference to be held at the Perth Convention Centre from the 20-23 November 2005.

The INF would like to invite all interested people to call in and speak to our staff about how we can assist you in your research.  For further information about the conference see www.ausbiotech2005.com.

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