Research
Research Excellence
The University of Bristol aims for international excellence in its research. The Faculty of Medical and Veterinary Sciences, comprising the Departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry, Cellular & Molecular Medicine, Clinical Veterinary Science, and Physiology & Pharmacology, is one of the UK’s leading biomedical science faculties, with many of our researchers being internationally recognised leaders in their research areas.
The Faculty includes world leading research groups such as the MRC Centre for Synaptic Plasticity and houses world leading research facilities such as the Wolfson Imaging Centre [Research Centres and Facilities]. The Faculty research is organised into themes. Besides fundamental, ‘blue-skies’ biomedical research, we are actively engaged in translational research from ‘farm to fork’ and from ‘bench-side to bed-side’, notably through our participation in SARTRE (The Severnside Alliance in Translational Research).
RAE 2008
The Faculty’s researchers turned in an impressive performance in RAE2008. Overall, 51% of the Faculty’s submission was assessed as 4* (‘world-leading’) or 3* (‘internationally excellent’) quality and 90% was of international standard (87% of eligible staff were submitted). Staff were returned in four UoAs: 3 (Infection and Immunology), 14b (Biomedical Sciences), 15 (Preclinical and Human Biological Sciences) and 16 (Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Science). Bristol came first in terms of research power (Grade Point Average x FTE) in UoA15 and Biochemistry was ranked 6= in UoA14b.
Faculty Research Director
Professor Malcolm W. Brown FRS obtained a BA (Natural Sciences, Theoretical Physics) and PhD (Neuroscience) at Cambridge before moving to the Department of Anatomy in Bristol in 1974. He was Head of the Department of Anatomy from 1998 to 2004 and has been Faculty Research Director and Chair of the Faculty’s Research Committee since 2003. He is a founder member of the MRC Centre for Synaptic Plasticity, member of its Management Group and leader of its Cognitive Neuroscience Group. He is Chair of the Medical Science Animal Affairs Committee and a member of the Animal Services Unit Board and the SARTRE Management Committee.
The focus of his research is on the neural processes that lie behind memory and learning, particularly the neural substrates of recognition memory. Anatomical, electrophysiological, pharmacological, psychological and computational neuroscience methods are used to test links between plasticity mechanisms and memory. Current research is seeking the roles of selective receptors and intracellular signalling pathways in plasticity, neuronal activity and behaviour. The aim is to determine effects across molecular, cellular, systems and behavioural levels of analysis so as to establish links between these levels, and hence elucidate the processes underlying recognition memory. The work is funded by grants from the MRC, BBSRC and Wellcome Trust.