We are pleased to announce that MRC CoRE Director Professor Peter Magill will join the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) Parkinson’s Research Centre as one of its foundational Group Leaders.

In 2025, the UK DRI partnered with the charity Parkinson’s UK to launch a new £10 million research centre dedicated to better understanding the causes of Parkinson’s and to accelerating new and improved treatments for the condition. The UK DRI confirmed today the first three Group Leader appointments to the Parkinson’s Research Centre.

Peter commented “I am thrilled to be joining the Parkinson’s Research Centre and to have the opportunity to contribute to the delivery of its distinctive vision. I look forward to collaborating with new colleagues at the Centre and across the UK DRI as we work together with our charity and public partners to fully realise the benefits of transformative research and make a difference to the lives of people affected by Parkinson’s.”

Peter will hold his UK DRI Parkinson’s Research Centre position at the University of Oxford.

Many congratulations to MRC CoRE Leadership Team member Associate Professor Melanie Fleming on being awarded a prestigious Senior Non-Clinical Lectureship by the Stroke Association.

The Stroke Association Lectureship programme aims to address succession and sustainability in the careers of stroke researchers. Senior Lectureship awards provide secure and stable long-term funding for researchers to lead their own research programmes and establish their independent careers.

Melanie will start her 5-year Senior Lectureship in January 2026.

Melanie commented: “I am very grateful for this opportunity to build my research group, and to be able to work together with people with lived experience of stroke to develop a tailored sleep intervention for this condition.”

MRC CoRE Director Professor Peter Magill commented: “We are thrilled for Melanie. This award is richly deserved. Melanie is an outstanding researcher, and a valued colleague and collaborator. Her scientific vision brilliantly complements the MRC CoRE’s discovery and translational research portfolios.”

The MRC CoRE in Restorative Neural Dynamics welcomes applications to join its new cohort of Ph.D. students, for a start in October 2026.

We are offering 4-year PhD studentships with research projects aligned to empirical neuroscience, computational neuroscience, experimental medicine, and biomedical engineering.

We provide outstanding opportunities for interdisciplinary training and personalised career development within a supportive research culture.

For more information about the research projects on offer, as well as the application process, please see our Studentships page.

Closing date for applications is 12.00 midday UK time on Tuesday 2nd December 2025.

Coinciding with the launch of the MRC CoRE in Restorative Neural Dynamics, today is the relaunch of the platform that has shared data from the MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit. Now serving both the MRC CoRE and the Unit, it has been relaunched as 'Cambium'. Since 2018, the sharing platform has allowed registered users to download the data underlying our discoveries. It has served over 1,800 downloads from authenticated researchers, with the most-downloaded dataset having over 500.

Dataset classes on Cambium include:

• Recordings of brain activity from humans and rodents
• Scripts and code used for analysis of data
• Digital micrographs of brain tissue
• Code for modelling of neuronal networks
• Printable 3D models and microcontroller code

"cambium

nounˈkambɪəm

(botany) A layer of cells between the xylem and the phloem that is responsible for the secondary growth of roots and stems."

- wiktionary

"cambium, an Exchange, or Place where Merchants meet."

- John Kersey, Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum, 1708

'Cambium', being a growing layer surrounding the main supportive core wood in trees, was chosen as a concept complementary to our 'CoRE' (MRC Centre of Research Excellence in Restorative Neural Dynamics). The older meaning of a place of exchange fits with the remit of sharing our data.