{"id":2738,"date":"2018-05-16T16:43:32","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T16:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=2738"},"modified":"2022-04-13T16:14:05","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T16:14:05","slug":"nature-and-nurture-neuroscience-and-mental-health-research-on-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/2018\/05\/16\/nature-and-nurture-neuroscience-and-mental-health-research-on-display\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature and Nurture: neuroscience and mental health research on display"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2741 size-large alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-170x96.jpg 170w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-250x141.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-550x309.jpg 550w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-70x40.jpg 70w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-270x152.jpg 270w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-370x208.jpg 370w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-570x320.jpg 570w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-670x376.jpg 670w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-770x433.jpg 770w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-870x489.jpg 870w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image-970x545.jpg 970w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/Neuro_featured_image.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"lead\">Cardiff University was last week delighted to visit the Royal Society in London and present \u2018Nature and Nurture? Mining the human genome for mental health discoveries\u2019, a showcase of world-leading neuroscience and mental health research, to a capacity crowd comprised of alumni, guests, and the wider public.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Nature and Nurture? Cardiff University at the Royal Society Showcase\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q47BpoRQuiM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>The challenge<\/h2>\n<p>Vice-Chancellor Professor Colin Riordan introduced this research area as one that Cardiff University &#8220;was right to make a strategic priority,\u201d a point of view reiterated by Professor Sir Mike Owen, Emeritus Director of Cardiff\u2019s Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute (NMHRI).<\/p>\n<p>Mental health accounts for five of the ten conditions listed on the\u00a0Global Burden of Disease, he explained, affecting the whole lifecycle: neurodevelopmental disorders (in early age), psychosis and major affective disorders (adulthood) and neurodegenerative disorders (older age).<\/p>\n<p>What was worse, \u201ctreatments in psychiatry have changed little over the last four decades\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2>Mining the genome<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2746 size-medium alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_jeremy_hall-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_jeremy_hall-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_jeremy_hall-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_jeremy_hall-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_jeremy_hall.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow,\u201d said Sir Mike, \u201cwe are making real progress.\u201d At the core of that is Cardiff\u2019s world-leading work into understanding genetics and genomics \u2013 the latter being all the material contained within a living organism. Having adopted a holistic approach, the University had already identified risk factors for schizophrenia, bipolar, ADHD, and Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Jeremy Hall (Director, NMHRI) took to the lectern to emphasise that the brain is designed to be affected by environmental factors. \u201cIn some ways,\u201d he said \u201cit would be quite surprising if your twenties and thirties didn\u2019t affect your mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The real problem with the brain was its inaccessibility, he said. We cannot yet pinpoint with real accuracy which genetic and genomic factors are at the heart of our mental health, and that is reflected in the mixed success of our remedies.<\/p>\n<h2>The Cardiff strategy<\/h2>\n<p>The brain\u2019s hidden secrets are at least partially exposed by the power of the 3T Connectom MRI scanner (\u201cequivalent to that of a nuclear submarine\u201d) at the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre. \u201cProbably the best such facility in Europe,\u201d said Professor Hall.<\/p>\n<p>The Centre, opened by Her Majesty the Queen in 2016, is solving one of the traditional diagnostic difficulties of mental health: where a visit to a GP can diagnose a cough as being symptomatic of pneumonia and prescribe treatment accordingly, the causality of depression is adjudged to be: depression.<\/p>\n<p>In gaining unprecedented access to the brain, Cardiff can make progress in diagnosing the underlying causes of the symptom and contribute to targeted treatments. \u201cWe are making progress on issues that had seemed impenetrable in my lifetime,\u201d he said, citing developments in treating Rett syndrome.<\/p>\n<h2>The future of mental health<\/h2>\n<p>The Cardiff academics were joined for a Q&amp;A by MQ Research Director Dr Sophie Dix (PhD 2001), who told of her pride in having graduated from an institution of increasingly global renown \u2013 and the\u00a0fact that Cardiff is so heavily committed to an area of research that has historically been under-resourced. \u201cSomeone has to do this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_in_text.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-2744\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_in_text-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_in_text-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_in_text-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_in_text-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_in_text-70x40.jpg 70w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_in_text-170x96.jpg 170w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_in_text-270x152.jpg 270w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_in_text-370x208.jpg 370w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_in_text-570x320.jpg 570w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_in_text-670x376.jpg 670w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_in_text-770x433.jpg 770w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_in_text-870x489.jpg 870w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_in_text-970x545.jpg 970w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/323\/2018\/05\/neuro_in_text.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When asked for her one wish in the future direction of research, Dr Dix harked back to Sir Mike\u2019s slide showing mental health issues at the core of the Global Burden of disease, and told of her desire to see it treated as such by every stakeholder in the medical research industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy one wish would be parity,\u201d she said. \u201cParity with other conditions on all levels: in funding, in research and in treatments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As those who joined us in London will attest, it\u2019s a wish that Cardiff is working hard to turn into reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cardiff University was last week delighted to visit the Royal Society in London and present \u2018Nature and Nurture? Mining the human genome for mental health discoveries\u2019, a showcase of world-leading neuroscience and mental health research.","protected":false},"author":1106,"featured_media":2741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2738"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2794,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738\/revisions\/2794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}