17th Feb 2021
The campaign to support neuroscience researchers in 'Systems Neuroscience', 'Mechanisms of Animal Behaviour' and 'Judgement and Decision-Making' at the University of Leicester is gaining widespread attention, with a letter calling the university to reconsider its plans for compulsory redundancies gaining over 750+ signatures from across the world.
This follows the statement of intention earlier this month (3rd February) from University of Leicester to disinvest in basic, discovery neuroscience and mechanistic animal behaviour research and, as a consequence, research-led teaching in these areas.
Student support for the at-risk staff has been exceptionally strong, with more than 600 University of Leicester Biological Sciences and Psychology students signing a powerful collective letter to Vice Chancellor Nishan Canagarajah, and many also writing individually to make the case that removal of research-active staff in these areas will be highly detrimental to their training.
Currently centred in the Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour (NPB), neuroscience at Leicester includes research into understanding memory, Huntington’s disease, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, or Motor Neuron Disease), schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease. Fundamental research addresses the mechanistic basis of sensory and motor systems, and the roles of neuromodulators like serotonin in regulating behaviour. The Department includes the discoverer of ‘Concept Cells’ (or ‘Jennifer Aniston neurons’).
Work within the Department aimed at understanding the fundamental principles of neuroscience not only allows new treatments and applications to be developed, but addresses key challenges in ageing as well as animal and human behaviour.
