Professor Max Bennett (Head, Neurobiology Laboratory)

Professor Max Bennett is taking aim at brain disease. He believes that psychiatric and neurological researchers at Sydney University's new Brain and Mind Research Institute (BMRI) are in an unparalleled position to advance work on ameliorating degenerative brain conditions that cause so much mental suffering in the world. It was his single vision to form the BMRI, which will use new non-invasive imaging techniques and the latest in genomics and proteomics to learn more about maladies such as Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, dementia, schizophrenia and clinical depression.

Professor Bennett has a long and distinguished career in the study of the formation and function of synapses. In 1963, he shattered the prevailing understanding of the transmission of electrical impulses across synapses, with the discovery of new kinds of substance that act as "transmitters" in the peripheral nervous system. His pioneering work has had a profound impact on our understanding of the nervous system and the way in which it controls other systems in the body.

Professor Bennett's work is only one strand of a number of advances in the general area of the understanding and treatment of brain and mind disease. There have been phenomenal advances in the last 10 years, including:

• the identification of genes uniquely associated with the brain's function and
• the development of new non-invasive brain imaging techniques (such as, Positron Emission Tomography and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging).

The Brain and Mind Research Institute aims to build on these foundations in its mission to contribute to the alleviation of brain diseases. The institute, with Professor Bennett as a Director, is devoted to advances in neuroscience, mental health and neurology.