Academic Quarter Buildings
Ageing Research Laboratories (ARL)
The ARL consists of the Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Biogerontology and the Edwardson Building. Although built five years apart, the two buildings function as one unit.
The Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Biogerontology which were completed in 2003, provide state of the art facilities for research on basic mechanisms of ageing. The building contains large, multi-purpose, laboratories and also specialised facilities, including a confocal microscope, tissue culture suites, advanced robotic sample handling and accomodation for the mathematical modelling group and the e-science grid computing facility. It provides the headquarters for CISBAN.
The Edwardson Building, which replaces the former Medical Research Council laboratories and is named in honour of the Institute’s founding Director Professor Jim Edwardson, was opened in 2008. It houses the Newcastle Brain Tissue Resource (NBTR) with its outstanding collection of post-mortem tissue from clinically and neuropathologically assessed cases of late-onset dementia and other neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.
There is comprehensive accommodation for research in brain ageing, with laboratories for neurotransmitter studies, electron microscopy, histology and advanced imaging techniques.
Biomedical Research Building (BRB)
This new building is still being commissioned, but currently holds staff from IAH on two of its floors. It links together ARL and CARU. The first floor continues on from the Ageing Research Labs and provides additional laboratory accomodation. The third floor is home to academic offices for Old Age Psychiatry and the majority of the national coordinating centre staff of the Dementia and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Network (DeNDRoN).
The second floor is home to Changing Age for Business and also provides incubator accomodation for business startups linked to ageing research at Newcastle University.
The ground floor will provide NHS accomodation for a variety of outpatient clinics.It is expected to be operational in mid-2012.
Newcastle Magnetic Resonance Centre (NMRC)
The Newcastle Magnetic Resonance Centre for the research application of magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging was completed in 2006. The facility contains a high resolution 3 Tesla Philips Achieva MR scanner and is the temporary home to a Siemens PET scanner with associated patient facilities. It is located at the east side of the Henry Wellcome Laboratory and Edwardson Building.
Clinical Ageing Research Unit (CARU)
This innovative new facility completed in summer 2008 contains a mix of clinical, teaching and research facilities. It is a specialist facility for conducting clinical trials in older people and also houses a gait analysis laboratory for use in studies of Parkinson's Disease and a visual perception laboratory. Find out more about the Clinical Ageing Research Unit.
Wolfson Research Centre
The Wolfson Research Centre is currently being refurbished and in Spring 2012 will become the home of Academic Psychiatry on the Campus for Ageing and Vitality.
See also the Newcastle Biomedicine Transforming Health pages.
