Professor Graham Collingridge, a world-renowned expert in learning and memory, has taken over as the new director of the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases.
Collingridge works in the area of synaptic plasticity, which is considered the neural basis of learning and memory. His research identifies the molecules and mechanisms in the brain that underlie learning and memory to determine how errors in the process of brain cell signalling and flexibility contribute to major brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and fragile X syndrome.
In 2016, he was one of three recipients of The Brain Prize, considered the world's most prestigious neuroscience award, bestowed by the Lundbeck Foundation in Denmark. The award recognizes Collingridge's research into "long-term potentiation," a model for understanding how memories form. Earlier this year, Collingridge was appointed commander of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to biomedical science.
"We are so pleased to have attracted someone of Graham's calibre to lead the Tanz Centre," says Professor Trevor Young, dean of the Faculty of Medicine. "His deeply impressive body of research into the neuroscience of learning and memory and its role in brain disorders holds great promise in helping millions of people affected by Alzheimer's and other devastating neurological conditions."
Under the direction of Dr. Peter St George-Hyslop, who served as director from 1990 to 2019, the Tanz Centre has become a global leader in neurodegenerative disease research, transforming our understanding of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, Parkinson's disease, ALS, prion diseases and other neurodegenerative conditions.
"Peter is a giant in the field of neuroscience," says Collingridge. "When he began his pioneering research into Alzheimer's in the 1980s, the disease was little understood. Today, thanks to Peter's leadership and the Tanz Centre's approach to pursuing basic scientific discoveries and translating these into therapies, we are able to more definitively diagnose and offer better treatment options to those suffering from these dreadful disorders of the central nervous system."
