We’d love for you to join us during our Brain Awareness Month and help us celebrate the last 50 years of funding advancements in neurological research.

Throughout the month of March, we’re taking our researchers on the road to celebrate the research that you have helped fund. Brain Awareness Month is a chance for the Neurological Foundation to connect with its supporters throughout New Zealand and share with them the new and exciting breakthroughs that have been happening in the lab!

We hope you’ll celebrate Brain Awareness Month with us this year to commemorate the past 50 years of research, and to see where the next 50 will take us.

ABOUT THE TOPIC

Dr Amy McCaughey-Chapman will introduce you to the innovative and brilliant work being done in the Bronwen Connor lab, at the University of Auckland’s Centre for Brain Research. Within this lab they look at growing brain cells in a dish. This work is called “cell reprogramming” and can be used to conduct research into specific diseases. She will be explaining how they grow the cells in the lab, what kind of work can be done with them and what she has used these cells for in the past. She has also developed a unique way in which scientists can grow cells from specific parts of the brain tailored for specific purposes and potentially specific disease research.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr Amy McCaughey-Chapman graduated from the University of Auckland in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science degree (BSc) with a double-major in Applied Mathematics and Pharmacology. During one of her first-year lectures with Distinguished Professor Sir Richard Faull, she fell in love with the human brain; from there her life changed. Upon completing her BSc, she enrolled into an Honours program to pursue the study of neuroscience. Amy has recently received a post-doctoral fellowship from the CatWalk Spinal Cord Injury Trust for a two-year project. Both of Amy’s Honours program and PhD project were funded by the Neurological Foundation with a W&B Miller Postgraduate scholarship from 2014-2017 and a Small Project Grant from 2018-2020.

EVENT DETAILS

This event will be held in the Marina & Hatea Conference Rooms at the Distinction Hotel Whangarei.

The doors for registration and seating will open at 6.00 pm. There will be a mix and mingle period after the event with the speaker where refreshments and food will be served.

There is limited parking onsite available to guests and event attendees.