Research areas

A detailed understanding of the healthy and abnormal functioning of higher nervous system processes, and thus the identification of potential new therapeutic directions for the treatment of memory and cognitive disorders, is a major long-term goal of neurobiological research worldwide and of our Institute. Our strategy is a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach combining all the methods of modern neuroscience.

Neurodegenerative diseases are a major social and economic problem of increasing importance in ageing societies burdened by chronic diseases. One reason for this is that most of the disease mechanisms remain unexplored, limiting the number of effective interventions. Our research strategy combines our Institute's world-class methodological capabilities, multidisciplinary knowledge base and translationa.l experimental models. The exploitation of the results of our studies is ensured by a number of collaborations with leading national and international clinicians

Mental disorders and psychiatric illnesses - including depression, schizophrenia and autism - are today's epidemics and impose a significant burden on both individuals and society. The research strategy of our institute is that in order to achieve breakthroughs in the treatment of psychiatric pathologies, it is necessary to look at these diseases from a new perspective and first understand the neural network basis of normal and abnormal behaviour.

Stress-related mental disorders, such as anxiety and depressive disorders or post-traumatic stress disorder, affect more than 20% of the EU population. The development of specific and effective treatments to alleviate stress-related mental disorders may be based primarily on the results of exploratory research. This is an important global challenge for neuroscience research, which is why our institute has made it a priority strategic research direction.

Endocrine systems coordinate the functioning of different organs, energy balance and reproduction in cooperation with the central nervous system. Disruption of the coordination of these processes results in severe pathological conditions of the body involving several organ systems. Our institutional research strategy is to understand the central nervous system mechanisms that regulate energy balance, linking stress and metabolic regulation, and may provide the basis for the development of new personalised therapeutic strategies.

Research that does not belong to any of the strategic research directions