Brisbane opens new centre for neuromodulation

Brisbane is seeking to become an international hub for research into neurological diseases with the launch yesterday of the $10 million Asia-Pacific Centre for Neuromodulation.

The centre is a joint initiative of The University of Queensland and St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital, and will seek to promote research, education and clinical care and aims to become the data hub for the Asia-Pacific region, linking to an international research and clinical database on neuromodulation technology and procedures.

The focus will be on deep brain stimulation (DBS), a neuromodulation procedure used to treat a range of neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, dystonia, essential tremor, post-stroke disorders, Tourette’s syndrome, intractable pain and epilepsy.

DBS involves the implantation into the brain of a neurostimulator, which stimulates areas of the brain associated with disease, such as motor regions in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

The device is sometimes referred to as a ‘brain pacemaker,’ and can lend significant therapeutic benefits to patients, even though the underlying principles of its function are still relatively poorly understood.

DBS is the specialty of two of the centre’s researchers, Professor Peter Silburn, who is Professor of Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Queensland, and Dr Terry Coyne, a neurosurgeon at St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital. Together they have performed over 800 DBS procedures.

According to Silburn, the Asia-Pacific Centre for Neuromodulation will conduct crucial research into DBS with the hope of improving treatments for patients with debilitating neurological diseases and conditions.

“It’s about taking what we’ve learned so far about deep brain stimulation, recording what is happening in people’s brains to learn more about how the brain functions and what parts are responsible for these problems,” he said.

“We’re working with partners like the Queensland Brain Institute to analyse data, so we can map individual brain cell activity and produce better outcomes for patients.”

The APCN’s research hub will be located within The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, and its administrative hub will be at St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital.