A rodent neuroscience facility in Oxford is being rebuilt from the ground up—not as a place to house animals, but as a purpose-designed workshop for linking brain chemistry to behaviour. The Department of Experimental Psychology currently lacks a dedicated space for chronic physiological studies of genetically and neurochemically manipulated rodents. Existing facilities are optimised for breeding or for acute tissue experiments, not for the long-running daily testing needed to connect gene expression, neural activity, and behaviour. This gap limits the department’s ability to translate rodent models into insights about human brain development, neuropsychiatric disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. If successful, the refurbished centre will allow researchers to combine expertise from mouse genetics, cellular neurochemistry, and behavioural neuroscience across Oxford’s departments. The facility sits yards from preclinical medical departments and biochemistry, and adjacent to a new Life Sciences Building. This proximity should accelerate the translation of rodent findings into human studies of conditions such as autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease—disorders with major individual and social impact. The project is primarily infrastructure for fundamental science. It does not promise an immediate clinical application, but it creates the physical conditions for discoveries that could eventually reshape how these conditions are understood and treated.
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We seek to refurbish and reconfigure space within the Department of Experimental Psychology to provide a state-of-the-art Centre for Behavioural and Systems Neuroscience. The planned layout will optimise capacity for a wide range of behavioural and chronic physiological studies of genetically and neurochemically manipulated rodent models. The floor plan will reflect the different needs of different types of experiments, from rat water mazes to mouse operant chambers or chronic unit recording studies. These requirements differ markedly from those in facilities designed primarily for rodent breeding and holding, or for acute or ex vivo tissue experiments. There will also be (limited) holding space for animals requiring long-running daily testing. The facility will advance our interdisciplinary neuroscience programmes. It will link gene expression, through cellular and systems neuroscience, to behaviour, with the goal of improving understanding of human brain development, neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Its complementarity with the new Life Sciences Building, nearing completion adjacent to Experimental Psychology, will allow the inter-departmental expertise of Oxford in mouse genetics, rodent cellular and systems neurochemistry, and behaviour to be maximally effectively combined. This will both widen and deepen existing cross-departmental collaborations. The Experimental Psychology department has major research programmes in primate and human cognitive neuroscience and developmental disorders, and lies within yards of the preclinical medical departments and biochemistry. This will encourage the generation and multi-level analysis of rodent models that we can translate into work on human neuropsychiatric and developmental conditions which have major individual and social impact.
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