Brain And Mind Centre

31/03/2026

Congratulations to this year’s recipients of the Brain and Mind Centre’s Engagement Collaborative Grants (ECGs). 4 successful recipients were awarded.

📰 Read more> https://bit.ly/BMCSchemes26

ECG Recipients:

🏆 A/Prof Melissa Sharpe from the School of Psychology and the Centre for Psychology and Cognition (CPC) will be collaborating with Dr Morgan James.

🏆 Dr Lipin Loo from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences and the Drug Discovery Initiative (DDI) will collaborate with Prof Kevin Keay.

🏆 Dr Shaikh Nayeem Faisal from the School of Biomedical Engineering, will be collaborating with A/Prof Paul Austin.

🏆 Dr Kevin Law from the School of Medical Sciences and the Centre for Psychology and Cognition (CPC) will collaborate with Dr Lewis Crawford.

"This grant provides a pivotal boost to our spatial multi‑omics program, enabling us to generate high‑resolution molecular maps of chronic pain circuits. These data will significantly accelerate our efforts to develop targeted, non‑opioid therapeutics and strengthen new collaborative links across the Brain and Mind Centre." - says Lipin Loo.

University of Sydney Faculty of Science, University of Sydney Sydney Health

23/03/2026

⭐ Welcome to our new Co-Director Professor Ben Colagiuri ⭐

We sat down to talk to Ben about his new role and what he's looking forward to at Brain and Mind Centre

Read our 'In Conversation with Ben' here -> https://bit.ly/InConversationwithBen

Ben says, 'What makes BMC unique is that it genuinely spans bench-to-bedside. We have world-class discovery research - from basic neuroscience to animal studies - right through to clinical services, clinical trials, and policy impact.'

University of Sydney

08/03/2026

Happy International Women's Day ⭐

We’re celebrating leadership from established research leaders to the next generation shaping what’s possible at Brain and Mind Centre.

We’re proud to recognise women in senior leadership roles across our research teams, alongside the leaders of tomorrow, our Early‑ and Mid‑Career Researchers who contribute their expertise, ideas and advocacy through the BMC EMCR Committee.

By valuing leadership at every career stage, we reaffirm our commitment to equity, visibility and opportunity for women in research, and to building a future where diverse voices lead meaningful change in brain and mind science.





Sydney Health University of Sydney Faculty of Science, University of Sydney

23/02/2026

🗣️How a new category of autism diagnosis could change disability support

The proposed diagnosis will allow services to plan and deliver support for autistic children with greater needs but means repeat assessments for those diagnosed before eight years old.

Dr Kelsie Boulton, Dr Marie Antoinette Hodge and Dr Rebecca Sutherland for The Conversation Australia + NZ

Researchers from University of Sydney, Sydney Health, and Child Neurodevelopment research team at Brain and Mind Centre found that when it comes to , few questions spark as much debate as how best to support autistic people with the greatest needs.

This prompted The Lancet Group medical journal to commission a group of international experts to propose a new category of “profound autism”.

Read -> https://lnkd.in/gksRD2ff

16/02/2026

🫂🧠Dementia advocates demand

Dementia Roundtable - Last week, clinicians, researchers, advocates, and those living with or caring for someone with dementia met on Wednesday to discuss a national dementia navigation model.

Australia’s leading brain health experts warn that anything less than full commitment to dementia navigators would be a “failure” as the nation’s death rates soar.

Scientia Professor Brodaty from the UNSW Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) (CHeBA) – along with Professor Lee-Fay Low from the University of Sydney and Dementia Australia – put in a formal submission to the NSW Government for a Dementia Navigator Network.

The $24.5m proposal is a key ask and would allow support workers to be embedded in all 15 Local Health Districts across the state.

A co-designed national Dementia Navigation Model is currently being worked on.

Read story -> https://lnkd.in/dHXPY8E9

11/02/2026

On International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we’re celebrating our researchers.

Photographed below: A/Prof Rachel Tan, Co-leader of the Neurotherapeutic Innovations research team.



University of Sydney Sydney Health

04/02/2026

⏩'Right Care, First Time, Where You Live' - Program Overview ⏩

Watch the Program Overview for RightCareFirstTimeWhereYouLive’, which aimed to deliver a bold vision to get young people back to work, back to school, and thriving in their communities.

As this Program concludes, the and Technology team would like to thank the six communities in Australia for their generous support of young people with lived experience of mental illness. It enabled the team to develop a clear picture of what the mental health system looks like for young people in these regions.

The five-year program was enabled by a $12.8 million investment from the BHP Foundation.

Watch Video> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56gewqXo1rA

https://www.rightcarefirsttimewhereyoulive.com.au/

03/02/2026

⭐Sydney researchers receive 29 NHMRC Ideas Grants

University of Sydney researchers have been awarded more than $38.9 million in National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grants funding to support a diverse range of health and medical research projects, from cancer and gene therapies to antimicrobial resistance and mental health.

Congratulations to Prof Adam Walker, co-leader of the Biometals in Neurological Diseases (BiNDs), Sydney Horizon Fellow Dr Morgan James of the Translational Psychopharmacology team, and Dr Kristi Griffiths of the Child Development and Mental Health team.

A total of 29 NHMRC Ideas Grants projects were awarded this round to researchers spanning the Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Medicine and Health and Faculty of Science.

Read full list>https://lnkd.in/ewsvUXg5

Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, University of Sydney Sydney Health

03/02/2026

💉 Wins Over Side-Effects💉

A study published by Dr Hannah Bowrey and Dr Morgan James from the Translational Psychopharmacology team at Brain and Mind Centre, found that people cared more about whether drugs like Ozempic helped them lose weight than about the side effects, even if they were moderate. Many patients reported gastrointestinal side effects like nausea or vomiting.

Attitudes toward Ozempic were shaped primarily by its perceived effectiveness in promoting weight loss, with gastrointestinal side effects exerting minimal influence on overall satisfaction. For many users, the benefits of appetite suppression and weight reduction outweighed treatment-related discomfort.

Read study> https://lnkd.in/egmS4vj7

Research team>https://lnkd.in/eNWmJcjD

University of Sydney

01/02/2026

Some anxiety is normal for NSW students as they return to school next week, says Professor Caroline Hunt from the Brain And Mind Centre at the University of Sydney.

"But this anxiety should settle once they get back in a school routine, so it is important for them to face their fears and not avoid. If your child usually enjoys school but starts to want to avoid going, and seems quieter or more withdrawn than usual, it is important to ask them gently what might have changed at school. If they report being bullied, stay calm, listen, and ask them how they would like you to help them."

16/01/2026

less effective for many living with atypical , new study finds

Read now 📰https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-16/antidepressants-less-effective-atypical-depression/106231014?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=whatsapp

Paper - https://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(26)00004-1/fulltext

New research has found common antidepressants are failing to help many people with atypical depression. From the Youth Mental Health and Technology research team at Brain and Mind Centre

The research also found those with atypical depression were more likely to experience side effects from standard pharmaceutical treatments.

Advocates and doctors say the research paves the way for more effective and personalised treatments.

Atypical depression is considered a distinct clinical subtype of major depression, yet its predictive validity and clinical utility remain contested. We investigated association between atypical depression and clinical characteristics, genetic profiles, and antidepressant responses.

17/12/2025

Groundbreaking study to Pave Way for Oxytocin Tracing in Humans

from Professor Adam Guastella

Read now ✅ https://www.sydney.edu.au/brain-mind/news-and-events/news/2025/12/17/groundbreaking-study-to-pave-way-for-oxytocin-tracing-in-humans.html

A first-of-its-kind study could answer one of the most important neuroscience questions about the impact of oxytocin on the brain and body

Researchers at the Brain and Mind Centre (BMC) have released the first-of-its-kind data for a oxytocin-based radiotracer that can be used in animals and humans, based on the Oxytocin ARC linkage radiotracer study.

Study -> https://www.nature.com/articles/s42004-025-01649-1

“Thrilled to see the strong preclinical results from this groundbreaking project! Sydney Imaging is ready to support Adam and his team as they advance to human studies, providing world-class radiochemistry expertise and Total Body PET imaging.” Professor Fernando Calamante. Director, Sydney Imaging Core Research Facility.

The human trial will be completed with the Australian National Total Body PET Facility, Australia’s first open-access facility with dedicated research capacity. The Facility is the result of a partnership between the University of Sydney, the National Imaging Facility (NIF) and the Northern Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD).

The oxytocin/oxytocin receptor (OT/OTR) signalling system is a promising therapeutic target for socioemotional disorders, yet its clinical potential is limited by a lack of in vivo molecular tools. Here, the authors develop and validate [18F]dOTK8[SFB] as a PET radiotracer, demonstrating its specifi...