List of potential researchers

The Part II Neuroscience curriculum at Cambridge requires me to spend Lent Term working in a research lab—a requirement to which I am very happy to oblige. The University posts a list of projects to choose from during Michaelmas Term, but if I do some extra legwork, I can arrange my own project or pick another lab that's not on the list.

I've spent two summers and two semesters seeing a project from start to finish in a fundamental research lab at Brown, and as a result, I have had rigorous training in the scientific process. However, I have also discovered that my interests lie much closer to translational "bench-to-bedside" research than to purely fundamental research. My goal is to spend Lent Term working on a translational (possibly clinical) project.

I'm not really sure how receptive Cambridge clinical researchers are to undergraduate students, but I'm going to compile a list of the ones I'm interested in working with anyways, so I know who to pester come October. I will amend the list as I find more neuroscience research labs.

I'll list the researchers after the cut.

Dr. Adrian Owen
Of course, how could I not mention this guy? He's world-renown for using fMRI to communicate with minimally conscious and locked-in patients.

Prof. David Menon
Uses various neuroimaging methods to understand the cerebral pathophysiology of traumatic brain injuries, recovery, and rehabilitation.

Prof. John Pickard
Investigates how early childhood insults to the brain (especially hydrocephalus) affects cognitive capabilities later in life. His research also addresses drug and surgical treatments for hydrocephalus, as well as detection of awareness in vegetative patients using fMRI.

Rehabilitation Research at the MRC CBU
They investigate fundamental human mental processes such as attention, memory, emotion and language. Using behavioral experiments, functional imaging and studies with neurological patients, their aim is to develop scientific understanding how these processes operate normally, what can go wrong when the brain is damaged and to aply these insights to improving outcome for patients and their families.

Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen
Dude. This man is the leading authority on all things pertaining to autism. When I found out that he directs the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge, I could barely contain my excitement. I'm not sure if I'd ever run into someone so high up the academic hierarchy, but I can always hope.

Dr. Mike Spencer
His research focuses on psychiatric disorders of childhood and adolescence through the use of fMRI. He is also currently conducting a fMRI study of autism.

Dr. Ulrich Müller
He investigates the effects of nootropics (such as methylphenidates and modafinil) on cognitive and emotional processes in both psychiatric patients and healthy volunteers. He uses mainly fMRI and radioligand binding with PET, in combination with prefrontal tasks.

(More to be added later.)