The Mind Power Lab: connecting and collaborating is prime to all the things we do

By Catherine Corridor

The theme for this yr’s British Science Week is connections and we thought it will be an excellent alternative to ask certainly one of our psychology lecturers, Dr Catherine Corridor to inform us a few of the the reason why connections and collaborations are so vital to analysis success.

Since my days as a PhD scholar, the factor I’ve discovered most enjoyable about science is the best way that your experimental outcomes frequently change the best way you perceive the world,  throwing open ever extra questions that it is advisable reply with a view to discover out if you’re proper to assume that approach! I like that these questions typically want new experiments, and sometimes new strategies that you simply haven’t achieved earlier than, however there’s all the time somebody you’ll be able to work with to discover ways to do this. Conversely there are additionally typically individuals who wish to discover ways to do one thing you are able to do to reply their very own questions. Science is actually a crew effort, and each single factor we do requires a collaborative effort to realize success.

In my analysis group – the Mind Power Lab – we’re desirous about how the mind controls its vitality provide and the way reductions in vitality equipped to the mind may precipitate Alzheimer’s Illness. Our analysis sits on the interface of many fields – incorporating neuroscience, psychology, biochemistry and cardiovascular physiology, utilizing specialised tools and reagents developed by physicists and chemists.  We’re all the time studying from individuals in these completely different fields, throughout the College of Sussex, and externally, to develop new approaches and discover new questions. To discover only a few of those connections, throughout COVID-19, we had been capable of join with colleagues in Life Sciences (Ed Wright, Louise Serpell) to find out how danger components for extreme COVID19 illness have an effect on an infection of vascular cells with SARS CoV-2. We’ve labored with Sussex Neuroscience Analysis Bioengineer Andre Maia Chagas to harness open entry machine studying strategies to trace mouse behaviour. Externally we examine novel populations of hippocampal neurons with Caswell Barry at UCL, and numerous properties of cells and tissue throughout hypoxia with Mariana Vargas Caballero at Southampton, Nicola Hamilton Whitaker at Kings Faculty London and Melissa Scholefield on the College of Manchester.  We’ve hosted visiting researchers from the College of North Caroline investigating striatal neurovascular relationships, and offered information for modelling research investigating properties of cerebral autoregulation. As does each different scientist, we sit inside an internet of connections that facilitates and conjures up our analysis and hopefully additionally that of our collaborators! It’s stimulating, thrilling and a big a part of what makes this such an incredible profession!

Catherine Corridor is a lecturer within the College of Psychology and principal researcher for the Mind Power Lab on the College of Sussex. You’ll find out extra about Catherine’s work from her Sussex profile and the Brain Energy Lab website.

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