Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience

From Discovery to Translational Neuroscience

The Laboratory of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience aims to establish internationally competitive research on neurobiological basis of auditory cognition and memory with the potential to advance treatments and therapeutic interventions for neurological and mental health disorders. We develop programs to link with clinical and patient work, which strongly aligns with the vision of Newcastle University and the vision of Newcastle University and Newcastle University Centre for Transformative Neuroscience.

We are based in Newcastle University Biosciences Institute (NUBI), which comprises over >100 active research groups, >200 postdoctoral research associates and >240 PhD students. The NUBI makes use of state-of-the-art neuroscience technology, ranging from single-cell analysis, molecular biology advanced neurophysiological and neuroimaging techniques.

Our work is supported by several funders, including the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the British Council.

BBSRC-NSF/BIO lead agency grant from January 2025

The lab will be supported by a four-year BSRC-NSF/BIO Lead Agency US-UK partnership grant from 2025 January, "Neuronal Circuits and Mechanisms for Auditory Memory and Prediction".

Neuromod+ Early Career Researcher (ECR) awards

EPSRC-funded Neuromod+ ECR Awards Advance Marmoset Preclinical Models and International Marmoset Workshop

British Council RENKEI Mobility Grant

Advancing AI Voice Technology for Aging Populations: British Council RENKEI Mobility Grant fuels UK-Japan collaboration

Ben receives the Young Investigator Award from the EBBS

Ben receives the Young Investigator Award from the European Brain and Behaviour Society (EBBS) and presented at FENS 2024

Zhipeng was selected for ICPBR Summer School

Zhipeng was selected for the International Center for Primate Brian Research (ICPBR) Summer School in Shanghai, China.

NNN seminar “Molecular Mechanisms of Long-Term Memory Storage” by Prof Ted Abel

“Molecular Mechanisms of Long-Term Memory Storage” by Prof Ted Abel at Neuroscience Neurodisability and Neurological Disorders Theme Seminar

Holmes Lectures for 10- to 14-year-olds

The 2024 Holmes Lecture "HUMANS VS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Lecture 1: Humans: Can you learn to train your brain? "was given by Dr Yuki Kikuchi and Ben Slater on 17 January.

EPSRC/MRC-funded CloseNIT grant support on Marmoset Closed-loop Project

EPSRC/MRC-funded CloseNIT grant support on “Closed-loop Auditory Stimulation to Modulate Amygdala-Frontal Synchrony in Free-Moving Marmosets”

New Preprint

New Preprint: 'Evolutionary Constraint Genes Implicated in Autism Spectrum Disorder Across 2,054 Nonhuman Primate Genomes' Now Available on bioRxiv

SfN 2023 Washington DC

Society for Neuroscience Meeting 2023 Washington DC, USA

Computational Psychiatry Conference 2023

The Computational Psychiatry Conference was held in Dublin, Ireland from July 6-8, 2023. An incredible number of computational psychiatry approaches were presented to advance treatments for mental illnesses.

FMS REDA Funded Outreach Event at the Scent & Science Festival, Haltwhistle

Congratulations to our lab members on a successful science outreach event funded by the FMS Research Development Excellence Award

FMS Research Excellence Development Awards (REDA)

The lab has been awarded the FMS Research Excellence Development Awards (REDA) for our project "Development of public engagement platforms to disseminate translational neuroscience research using animal models."

University EDI Award 2023

Dr Yuki Kikuchi received the Univerity Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Champion Award

MRC Programme Grant support on ‘Neuronal Circuit for Perceptual Inference’

The lab will be supported by a four-year Multiple-PI MRC programme grant on ‘Neuronal Circuit for Perceptual Inference’ from January 2023, £1.8M

SfN 2022 San Diego

Society for Neuroscience Meeting 2022 San Diego, USA

Recruiting two Post-Doctoral Positions at Newcastle Univ. and Univ. of Iowa

Recruiting two Post-Doctoral Positions at Newcastle Univ. and Univ. of Iowa