Oxford Neurosciences has been successful in gaining two important Wellcome Trust Strategic Awards in the latest round of funding, with a combined value of over \u00a36m. This round had attracted the most applications the Wellcome Trust had ever received, making the success of the applications that much more outstanding.
Professor Russell Foster, head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, has won the BBSRC Social Innovator of the Year award at a ceremony on the 29th March. He received the award, now in its fourth year, for his work in identifying photosensitive retinal ganglion cells and the important role they play in regulating sleep, circadian rhythms and other physiological responses to light. Professor Foster\u2019s work has had major implications in the clinic and social inferences in designing new lighting systems and the use of natural light in building design.
FMRI has long been a useful research tool, providing indirect indications of relative change in brain activity when the subject is presented with different stimuli. It has rarely been used in diagnostics as it does not produce numerical data. Currently, positron emission tomography (PET) scans are used to provide quantitative measurements of blood flow and volume in the brain for use in diagnosis. However, PET is expensive, has poor spatial resolution and exposes the patient to ionising radiation.
![\"\"](\"https://www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/news/two-wellcome-trust-strategic-awards-confirmed/responsive_image?ratio=r16x9&scale=w760\")
\n \n \n\n\n