Welcome from Professor Gerard O’Keeffe, Head of Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, University College Cork

‌‌On behalf of my colleagues at the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience in the School of Medicine at University College Cork, I would like to welcome you to our website.

Anatomy is the branch of biology and medicine that studies the structure of living things. Neuroscience is centred on the scientific study of the nervous system in health and disease.

I was appointed as Head of the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience in June 2024. I am very proud to take over as Head of such a vibrant and dynamic Department and I am looking forward to continuing to progress the research, innovation and teaching excellence that have been a cornerstone of the Department since its foundation in 1850.

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

Research within the department now form a core part of the UCC Futures, which is an ambitious new programme of research prioritisation coupled with an innovative academic recruitment strategy across ten indicative areas of strategic importance that will build a foundation for economic, societal and cultural resilience and prosperity.  The Department is heavily involved in the Futures programme particularly in the areas of Future Ageing & Brain Sciences, Future Medicines, Children, Food Microbiome & Health, but also others.

Research within the Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience is multidisciplinary in nature, and the Department has strategically and cohesively established a network of excellence in neuroscience research (www.ucc.ie/en/anatomy/research/). This strategy, aided by substantial institutional and external grant support, has empowered high-impact collaborations between academic staff, clinicians and technologists, that have surmounted traditional boundaries to not only accelerate innovation and discovery, but also to translate this transformative research to meet the Neuroscience-driven challenges of the 21st century. Within this context, the Department’s research strengths include stress neurobiology, brain-gut communication, neurodegeneration, neuroinflammation, cognitive neuroscience, and the developing and ageing brain. Studies range from fundamental studies of the nervous system in health and disease, to development of strategies for neuroprotection and restoration of function of damaged tissue in disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, anxiety and age-related cognitive decline. The experimental programme spans the genetic, epigenetic, molecular, cellular, tissue, systems and behavioural spectra. The range of techniques and expertise available is broad and is particularly strong in behavioural neuroscience, and in relation to postgenomic and cellular studies, whereby molecular events are analysed and are located with high precision in cells and tissues, in order to understand the complex interplay of events in brain development, health and disease. Consequently, the research programme is integrated and multidisciplinary, encompassing genetic, molecular, cellular and tissue components, and there is extensive collaboration between the groups. The Department has extensive national and international collaborations, and the Departmental strategic approach of hosting international symposia and scientific meetings is aimed at facilitating their expansion.

Research within the Department of Anatomy & Neuroscience is supported by state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities that have been developed and expanded into a highly collaborative centre of excellence which is housed within two locations in the BioSciences Institute (BSI), and Western Gateway Building (WGB) at UCC. The Department has access to major core facilities incorporating the state-of-the-art BSI Imaging facility (www.ucc.ie/en/anatomy/bsic/), electrophysiology, analytical proteomics, mass-spectrometry, genomics and bioinformatic platforms, and the Biological Services Unit animal facility including behavioural and transgenic platforms and biobanking suites.

The Department interacts extensively with Research Centres within UCC, particularly the Science Foundation Ireland funded APC Microbiome Institute (www.ucc.ie/research/apc/content/) and the Irish Centre for Fetal and Neonatal Translational Research (INFANT) (www.infantcentre.ie). These Centres aim to promote health at the extremes of life, during ageing and development respectively.

TEACHING AND LEARNING

Educational Programmes

The teaching mission of the Department is to enable high-quality innovative teaching and assessment of Anatomy and Neuroscience at both undergraduate and postgraduate level within a context that is clinically meaningful and related to the competencies required by health professionals and research- and industry-based scientists. Our aim is to provide doctors, health professionals and scientists of the future with a world-class, student-centred education, based on current knowledge, informed by research and with an awareness of societal needs.

Taught Programmes

The Department offers a BSc in Neuroscience (https://www.ucc.ie/en/anatomy/studyneuroscience/) which was the first of its kind in Ireland, and is a core Unit of the BSc in Medical and Health Sciences (https://www.ucc.ie/en/anatomy/study-medical-and-health-sciences/, in addition to teaching Basic and Clinical Anatomy to students in the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Clinical Therapies, Pharmacy, Nursing and in the College of Science, Engineering and Food Science and College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Science. Additionally, we have an increased emphasis on developing continuing professional development-based and on taught MSc programmes. Our taught MSc in Human Anatomy provides a unique and exceptional opportunity for students to develop their dissection and anatomical knowledge in a state-of-the-art human anatomy teaching and research facility (https://www.ucc.ie/en/anatomy/study/anatomypostgraduatetaughtstudies/).

Research Degree Programmes

We offer first class opportunities for postgraduate research, especially at PhD level. The Department has one of the highest numbers of research students in the College of Medicine and Health. Research programmes in PhD, MD and MSc by Research are offered (https://www.ucc.ie/en/anatomy/research/postgraduateresearchprogrammes/).

A LASTING LEGACY THANKS TO OUR DONORS

Over its long history, the Department has made a huge contribution to the training of doctors, dentists and other health professionals in addition to many scientific and medical discoveries. However, much of this training is dependent on those who are generous enough to donate their bodies for the purpose of medical science and education. Such donations are essential to our proper functioning as a medical and other health science schools.

The generosity of donors is marked by a sculpture which is located in the Department. It is a commissioned abstract piece in the form of a flame. It represents the flame of knowledge which leads to the light of understanding and forms the basis of the renaming of our new teaching laboratory.

In 2012 the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience held its inaugural Thanksgiving Ceremony.  The ceremony was a celebration to honour all anatomical donors since 1849, and was held in the Honan Chapel, University College Cork. Since then the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience has held a Thanksgiving Ceremony biannually in recognition of the continued generosity of donors and their families.