The MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, funded in partnership by the Medical Research Council and King's College London, was founded in the year 2000 to promote research in this rapidly expanding area of neuroscience. The Centre occupies the entire fourth floor of New Hunt's House, a new research, library and teaching building on the Guy's Hospital Campus of King's College London. It comprises twenty-three laboratories and is headed by Professor Andrew Lumsden, FRS. A total of approximately 140 scientists, students, and staff work on related questions concerning the early steps in nervous system development.
Research Programme Coordinators & Advisory Board
The overall aim of the Centre is to understand the early events during brain development and, through this, to increase our knowledge of the mechanisms that lead to malformation and that limit regenerative processes in the human nervous system. The Centre's mission is to advance this understanding through collaborative multi-disciplinary studies using a variety of model organisms (such as mouse, fruit fly, and zebrafish). It is our belief that an effective approach to key issues in early brain development depends on combining gene discovery with functional analyses at molecular, biochemical, cell biological, anatomical, and physiological levels. Our Centre allows the expertise of specialists over this wide range of disciplines to focus their research collectively on this well-defined and important area of biology.
In addition to research, groups within the Centre participate in teaching at the undergraduate and graduate level as well as organise a regular Seminar Series.