Establishment of new medical research centre boosts research into neurological conditions

prospective

Since the opening of the centre in 2010, the centre has especially focussed on studying the changes brought about by damage to the body’s central nervous system. The centre aims to research and develop new medical procedures that could help those that have suffered serious brain damage or suffer from epilepsy, pain or psychiatric diseases.Among other pieces of technical equipment, the centre has been equipped with a hi-tech microscope that allows researchers to visualise the morphology of nerve tissue. The new microscope enables individual cell counts of nerve tissue. It can also precisely measure the lengths and volumes of nerve cells, create three-dimensional reconstructions of nerve cells and/or brain structures and perform a range of other procedures.Providing scientists with the optimum research facilities“The aim of the project was to set up a specialised workplace which would provide researchers implementing basic research with top technological conditions for neuroanatomical analysis and quantitative morphology,” said project coordinator Hana Kubová.“Scientists are raising the question of how functional consequences of brain damage can be minimised and indeed how the onset of epilepsy might be prevented. In-depth knowledge of physiological processes in our brain and changes in these resulting from damage can bring about new possibilities for therapeutic interventions when the central nervous system is afflicted. The project improved research infrastructure and increased the objectivity of the results of the examination of brain damage, which resulted in better outcomes in the area of basic research."Other cutting-edge equipment at the NeuroImage Centre provides research scientists with a comprehensive system for carrying out stereological analyses, densitometry, three-dimensional cell reconstructions and three-dimensional analyses. The centre is also available for research in other scientific areas and for carrying out specific research assignments.Total and EU fundingThe “NeuroImage - Centre for Studying the Morphology of Nerve Tissue” project had a total budget of EUR 195 494, of which the EU’s European Regional Development Fund contributed EUR 164 545 under the ‘Prague – Competitiveness’ Operational Programme for the 2007 to 2013 programming period.