Professor Perry Bartlett, FAA
Director, The Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland
Professor Perry Bartlett is internationally renowned in the field of cellular and molecular neuroscience, a Fellow of the Australian Academy and a recipient of the prestigious Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship. Professor Bartlett was appointed Foundation Chair in Molecular Neuroscience at the University of Queensland in 2002, and the inaugural Director of the Queensland Brain Institute in 2003.Â
Formerly, he was Head of the Division of Development and Neurobiology at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research where he developed a strong program of discovery which has led to several paradigm shifts in our understanding of the nervous system.
First, in 1992, his laboratory co-discovered the presence of stem cells in the adult brain that had the capacity to produce new neurons, thus overturning the long-held belief that neuronal production ceased in early life; then, in 2001 in a paper featured on the front cover of Nature, his group was first to isolate and characterise these stem cells.
More recently his group has gone on to reveal the presence of a latent hippocampal stem cell population that can be activated by synaptic stimulation and give rise to new neurons. These discoveries underpin the current concept of functional stem cells in the adult mammalian brain and the burgeoning interest in their importance to learning and memory and to activating the endogenous stem cells to repair damaged or diseased CNS. Professor Bartlett has published more than 180 peer-reviewed papers, and is the recipient of the John Woodward Prize for Excellence in Neuroscience (1991), and the Bethlehem-Griffith Research Medal and Prize (2000).
He is also a past President of the Australian Neuroscience Society, and has served as an executive member of IBRO and FAONS.
Research Australia Board of Directors