The Neuromax team from the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) has obtained the status of assigned unit to the Higher Committee of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) by means of the Cajal Institute, which will enable the institution directed by professor Ricardo Insausti to make progress in the study of the human brain.
The Higher Committee of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the largest public research body in Spain and the third largest in Europe, has incorporated the group Neuromax from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, as an assigned unit. Made up of the head of Anatomy at the UCLM, Ricardo Insauti, who is in charge, and the researcher from the Cajal Institute, Javier Felipe Oroquieta, the Neuromax unit has set the goal of making a comprehensive study of the human central nervous system from macroscopic levels (that is, what can be seen just by looking) to a subcellular and synaptic one (the neuron level) by means of an analysis carried out with a cell microscope and advanced electron one.
The assigned unit, Neuromax, will gather the work carried out by the Laboratory of Human Neuronatomy from the regional university and the Cajal Laboratory of Cortical Circuits, a partnership which has already been fruitful in pilot experiments such as that they dedicated to improving the procedure for collecting brain tissue which arrives at the Albacete Faculty of Medicine by means of the donation programme the centre has. Thanks to this group work, the researchers have made notable progress in the procedure for handling and preserving brain tissue and they will even make an announcement about this at the annual meeting for the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, United States, in November.
In the same line of collaboration, the new unit that has been assigned to the CSIC has set new challenges, such as making a study of the cells of the different layers of the entorhinal cortex, which is that located in the medial temporal lobe and which is crucial for capacities such as memory and orientation. Likewise, the Neuromax unit will research the basal ganglia on a cell and synaptic level. These are located at the base of the brain and when damaged have been connected to some diseases such as Parkinson´s, or Huntington´s Chorea.
With the addition of Neuromax, there are now eight units assigned to the CSIC at the University of Castilla-La Mancha: Biotechnology , Biomedicine, Environment and Forestry Resources, Centre for Music Research and Documentation (CIDoM), Polibienestar( Research Institute on Social Welfare Policy), History of Science-Social Studies of Medicine at the UCLM and Study and Research of molecular biomarkers and genetics related to physical exercise and sport (AKANTHOS).
UCLM Communication Office Ciudad Real, 16th of October, 2018.