Stephen Dunnett

Last updated

Stephen Dunnett
Born (1950-01-28) 28 January 1950 (age 73)
London, England
CitizenshipUK
Alma mater University of Cambridge,
Birkbeck College, London
Known for Cell therapies for
neurodegenerative diseases
Scientific career
Fields Neuroscientist
Institutions University of Cambridge,
Cardiff University

Stephen"Steve"Dunnett DSc FMedSci FLSW (born 28 January 1950 [1] ) is a British neuroscientist, and among the most highly cited researchers in the neurosciences. [1] [2] Until his retirement in 2017, he was a professor at Cardiff University and the founder and co-director of the Brain Repair Group, where he worked on developing cell therapies for neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease. [3] [4]

Contents

Early life and education

Dunnett was born in London, where he attended Eltham College, an independent school, then won an open exhibition to study Mathematics at Churchill College, Cambridge. After graduating in 1972, he worked for several years as social worker in the London Borough of Southwark. [1] [2]

He returned to university to study for a second bachelor's degree in psychology at Birkbeck College, London, from where he graduated in 1978 with the prize for the top first class degree in the Faculty of Sciences. Dunnett then returned to Cambridge University in 1978 as a research student at Clare College and was awarded a PhD in experimental psychology in 1981. [1] [2]

Academic career

After a brief spell as a visiting research scientist at Lund University in 1981-2, Dunnett returned to Cambridge, he was a lecturer and reader in the Department of Experimental Psychology, Fellow of Clare College from 1984 onwards, and from 1992 to 1999 he was Director of Scientific Programmes at the Medical Research Council Centre for Brain Repair. [1] [2] He moved to Cardiff University in 2000, where he is a full professor in the neuroscience division of the School of Biosciences. He directs the Brain Repair Group, focussing on development of novel cell based therapies for neurodegenerative disease. For many years, Dunnett was editor in chief of Brain Research Bulletin .

He retired to France in 2017 but retains an emeritus appointment with Cardiff University.

Awards and honours

In 1988, the British Psychological Society awarded Dunnett the Spearman Medal for outstanding published work by an early-career researcher. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine the next year, of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2003, and of the Learned Society of Wales in 2011. He was the Knight Visiting Professor at the University of Miami School of Medicine in 1992. Dunnett has also been awarded the Alfred Mayer medal of the British Neuropathological Society (1998) and Honorary Fellowship of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society (2002). [2]

Books

Books that Dunnett has co-authored or co-edited include:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Retina</span> Part of the eye

The retina is the innermost, light-sensitive layer of tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focused two-dimensional image of the visual world on the retina, which then processes that image within the retina and sends nerve impulses along the optic nerve to the visual cortex to create visual perception. The retina serves a function which is in many ways analogous to that of the film or image sensor in a camera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enteric nervous system</span> Vital system controlling the gastrointestinal tract

The enteric nervous system (ENS) or intrinsic nervous system is one of the main divisions of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and consists of a mesh-like system of neurons that governs the function of the gastrointestinal tract. It is capable of acting independently of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, although it may be influenced by them. The ENS is nicknamed the "second brain". It is derived from neural crest cells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human brain</span> Central organ of the human nervous system

The human brain is the central organ of the human nervous system, and with the spinal cord makes up the central nervous system. The brain consists of the cerebrum, the brainstem and the cerebellum. It controls most of the activities of the body, processing, integrating, and coordinating the information it receives from the sense organs, and making decisions as to the instructions sent to the rest of the body. The brain is contained in, and protected by, the skull bones of the head.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transplant rejection</span> Rejection of transplanted tissue by the recipients immune system

Transplant rejection occurs when transplanted tissue is rejected by the recipient's immune system, which destroys the transplanted tissue. Transplant rejection can be lessened by determining the molecular similitude between donor and recipient and by use of immunosuppressant drugs after transplant.

In philosophy and neuroscience, neuroethics is the study of both the ethics of neuroscience and the neuroscience of ethics. The ethics of neuroscience concerns the ethical, legal and social impact of neuroscience, including the ways in which neurotechnology can be used to predict or alter human behavior and "the implications of our mechanistic understanding of brain function for society... integrating neuroscientific knowledge with ethical and social thought".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neurulation</span> Embryological process forming the neural tube

Neurulation refers to the folding process in vertebrate embryos, which includes the transformation of the neural plate into the neural tube. The embryo at this stage is termed the neurula.

Neural engineering is a discipline within biomedical engineering that uses engineering techniques to understand, repair, replace, or enhance neural systems. Neural engineers are uniquely qualified to solve design problems at the interface of living neural tissue and non-living constructs.

Stem-cell therapy is the use of stem cells to treat or prevent a disease or condition. As of 2016, the only established therapy using stem cells is hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. This usually takes the form of a bone-marrow transplantation, but the cells can also be derived from umbilical cord blood. Research is underway to develop various sources for stem cells as well as to apply stem-cell treatments for neurodegenerative diseases and conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

Neuroimmunology is a field combining neuroscience, the study of the nervous system, and immunology, the study of the immune system. Neuroimmunologists seek to better understand the interactions of these two complex systems during development, homeostasis, and response to injuries. A long-term goal of this rapidly developing research area is to further develop our understanding of the pathology of certain neurological diseases, some of which have no clear etiology. In doing so, neuroimmunology contributes to development of new pharmacological treatments for several neurological conditions. Many types of interactions involve both the nervous and immune systems including the physiological functioning of the two systems in health and disease, malfunction of either and or both systems that leads to disorders, and the physical, chemical, and environmental stressors that affect the two systems on a daily basis.

Neuroepithelial cells, or neuroectodermal cells, form the wall of the closed neural tube in early embryonic development. The neuroepithelial cells span the thickness of the tube's wall, connecting with the pial surface and with the ventricular or lumenal surface. They are joined at the lumen of the tube by junctional complexes, where they form a pseudostratified layer of epithelium called neuroepithelium.

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are self-renewing, multipotent cells that firstly generate the radial glial progenitor cells that generate the neurons and glia of the nervous system of all animals during embryonic development. Some neural progenitor stem cells persist in highly restricted regions in the adult vertebrate brain and continue to produce neurons throughout life. Differences in the size of the central nervous system are among the most important distinctions between the species and thus mutations in the genes that regulate the size of the neural stem cell compartment are among the most important drivers of vertebrate evolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans-Werner Bothe</span> German philosopher

Hans-Werner Bothe is a German philosopher and neurosurgeon working in the field of Neurobionics.

Bagadilico, Basal Ganglia Disorders Linnaeus Consortium, is a research group in Lund, Sweden, and a Linnaeus environment, supported by the Swedish Research Council. The group comprises about 120 researchers at either Lund University or Lund University Hospital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivar Mendez</span> Canadian neurosurgeon and neuroscientist

Ivar Mendez is a neurosurgeon, neuroscientist and Professor of Surgery at the University of Saskatchewan. He is internationally known for his work in cell transplantation for Parkinson's disease and the use of remote presence robotics in neurosurgery and primary health care.

Translational neuroscience is the field of study which applies neuroscience research to translate or develop into clinical applications and novel therapies for nervous system disorders. The field encompasses areas such as deep brain stimulation, brain machine interfaces, neurorehabilitation and the development of devices for the sensory nervous system such as the use of auditory implants, retinal implants, and electronic skins.

Lorenz Studer is a Swiss biologist. He is the founder and director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He is a developmental biologist and neuroscientist who is pioneering the generation of midbrain dopamine neurons for transplantation and clinical applications. His expertise in cell engineering spans a wide range of cells/tissues within the nervous system geared toward disease modeling and exploring cell replacement therapy. Currently, he is a member of the Developmental Biology Program and Department of Neurosurgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a Professor of Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, NY.

Nano neuro knitting is an emerging technology for repairing nervous system tissues via nano scaffolding techniques. Currently being explored in numerous research endeavors, nano neuro knitting has been shown to allow partial reinnervation in damaged areas of the nervous system through the interactions between potentially regenerative axons and peptide scaffolds. This interaction has been shown to lead to sufficient axon density renewal to the point that functionality is restored. While nano neuro knitting shows promise, the uncertainty of the effects in human subjects warrants further investigation before clinical trials initiate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anders Björklund</span> Swedish histologist (born 1945)

Anders Björklund' is a Swedish neuroscientist and pioneer in the study of cell- and gene-based reparative and neuroprotective mechanisms in the brain. He has spent his academic career at Lund University in Sweden, as professor since 1983 and as senior professor at the Wallenberg Neuroscience Center since his formal retirement in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Yanai</span> Israeli scientist and researcher

Joseph Yanai is a researcher pioneering in studying the reversal of neurobehavioral birth defects in animal models. He serves as a professor and Director of the Ross Laboratory for Studies in Neural Birth Defects at the Department of Medical Neurobiology, The Institute For Medical Research, Israel-Canada (IMRIC) at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School Jerusalem, Israel and was also appointed as Adjunct Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.

Foetal brain cell graft is a surgical procedure that can be used as a regenerative treatment for various neurological conditions, but was mainly explored and used specifically for treating Parkinson's disease (PD). A standardised procedure is followed: the cells are usually obtained from a 7-8 weeks old foetus and the collected cells undergo testing to examine whether they are free from infectious agents and safe for transplantation. It is found that this procedure results in an overall improvement in motor functions and a reduction in reliance on medication for PD patients.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Dunnett, Stephen B. Archived 19 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine ISIHighlyCited.com Accessed 2 September 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Prof Steve Dunnett: Biography. Cardiff University. Retrieved 2 September 2009.
  3. Prof Steve Dunnett: Overview. Cardiff University. Retrieved 2 September 2009.
  4. The Brain Repair Group. Cardiff University. Retrieved 2 September 2009.