Centre for Neurodevelopmental Synaptopathies (CNS)

Our centre combines a range of expertise in several fields of neurobiology including synaptic function and plasticity, human stem cells and cognition-behaviour with the initial goal of investigating autism spectrum disorders (ASDS) and intellectual disability (ASD/ID). Neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative brain disorders represent a major and growing public health threat. The goal of CNS, an international collaborative centre between inStem, NCBS and the University of Edinburgh, is to accelerate the discovery and delivery of effective therapeutics for these largely untreatable conditions. Although these are a disparate group of currently untreatable conditions that include acquired, developmental and ageing-related diseases, there are common themes and needs. Uniformly, the unmet need is for a human-based approach to investigating the causes, consequences and ultimately treatment of these diseases. To this end, our centre combines a range of expertise in several fields of neurobiology including synaptic function and plasticity, human stem cells and cognition-behaviour with the initial goal of investigating autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and intellectual disability (ASD/ID). Since receiving the first instalment of funding from the Department of Biotechnology last year, we have established three distinct but related programmes of work spanning multiple levels of neural organization.