The goal of the Centre for the Developing Brain is to reduce the number of children who suffer brain damage in the perinatal period through:

• Understanding human brain development around the time of birth
• Creating new capabilities to map cerebral development in health and disease
• Exploring and exploiting the underlying biology of brain development disorder to create new therapies
• Conducting clinical trials of novel neuroprotective and neural rescue therapies

The Centre has established a comprehensive and integrated capability to achieve these ambitious goals, combining working groups in: basic and translational neurobiology; MR imaging development, analysis and application; and clinical studies of the human fetus and infant.

The Centre has advanced MR imaging facilities, including a novel fetal imaging capability and a dedicated MR imaging suite sited within the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at St Thomas' Hospital. This integrated capability allows novel treatments defined by basic and translational neuroscientists to be tested in human infants using novel and well-qualified imaging biomarkers.

We have a strongly collaborative approach working with colleagues around the world, and particulary with colleagues at Imperial Colege London (most notably Professor Daniel Rueckert who is a longstanding member of the Centre), and with clinicians and scientists within King's Health Partners. A major goal for the coming period will be to develop collaborative studies of Autism Spectrum Disorders and Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders, and to work with the MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology on translational studies of basic neurodevelopmental mechanisms.