ReseaRch Quality assuRance foR the futuRe a ... - Lund University

Panel 9 – medicine | experimental
Relevance: Good to very good. Albeit that recent years have seen a huge
growth in –omics and molecular biology research, immune effector cell
interactions and regulation remain a hugely important area relevant to
disease pathogenesis, opening up new avenues for therapeutic targeting.
However, as stated above, the translational aspects of the current research
programme are not immediately visible. Mucosal Immunity could also
link into certain aspects of lung cell biology. There is a huge future opportunity
with the Stem Cell Aging group, but it is vital that links are made
to other divisions with like interests.
Vitality and Organisational Capacity: Very good in terms of some bright
young PIs with strong budgets giving this Division a good prognosis for
the future; but as outlined in the summary above there are outstanding
questions to answer in terms of overall structure and how this translates
to the individual PIs and as a whole. This makes it difficult to truly
evaluate their ability to manage project activity within this particular
division.
3.6 Neuroscience
Summary: In summary, this is an excellent unit with two foci of interest
in neurophysiology of sensory motor systems and neurodegenerative
disorders. Given the relatively-small size of the unit, the strategy to focus
research on these topics seems appropriate. Our judgment of excellence
in neuroscience is based on outstanding publications of some of the
PIs and on plentiful funding from competitive grants. Still, attention
should be paid to recruitment of new, young PIs who will be able to build
strong, independent research programs with international impact and
independent funding, and whose programs would bridge between the
two existing foci of neurophysiology and analysis of neurodegenerative
disorders.
Quality: The Neuroscience Unit at Lund University is of excellent quality.
It is composed of two centres of excellence with high quality levels. The
Neurofortis and Bagadilico Consortia are of outstanding quality and composed
in part of world leader in the field of neurodegenerative disorders.
The results obtained in term of modelling neurodegenerative disorders,
understanding the pathophysiology and developing new neurorestorative
strategies is of utmost quality. The second Centre of Excellence composing
the neuroscience unit is the Neuronano Research Centre which
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