Flagship fields of research in line
with the region's cutting-edge facilities

NEUROSCIENCE

In this field, Adebag is using the expertise of the Neurodys Thematic Research and Care Network (RTRS) and the Rhône-Alpes Handicap, Ageing and Neurosciences Research Cluster.

"NeuroDis" Project

The promoters of the Neurodis project – four teaching hospitals, the Universities of
Lyon-1, Grenoble-1, Clermont-Ferrand-1 and Saint-Étienne, Inserm, CNRS and the CEA
research agencies – intend to integrate their Neuroscience Health-Care and Research structures to
bring them to bear on programmes of patient-centred biomedical research in the field of
neurological disease.

• An internationally recognised out-patient recruitment network: the Lyon Neurology Hospital is one of the few such specialised centres in Europe.
• An outstanding tradition of collaboration between clinical and research teams that has developed important advances in diagnosis and treatment.
• A range of resources, coordinated across the whole geographical area: fully operational certified tissue banks (Epidemiological and Biological Resource Centres), and multimodal cerebral, metabolic and functional human and animal exploration platforms (PET, MRI, MEG, synchrotron radiation, proteome, transcriptome and neurochemistry facilities).
• A neuroscience research and clinical community with a proven track-record in transverse crossdisciplinary research ranging from cellular-level physiopathology mechanisms to innovative patient-management strategies.

Contact: Claire RIGAUD-BULLY, claire.rigaud-bully@univ-lyon1.fr

The Handicap, Ageing and Neurosciences Research Cluster (HVN)

This is a multidisciplinary training centre which aims to focus the regional scientific community on these 3 themes.

Disability is a considerable social challenge for which little research is being carried out. This is also the case for ageing, which is an aggravating factor of disability, and related neurodegenerative diseases. In 2005, the HVN cluster was set up on a Rhône-Alpes regional initiative with the aim of interacting with and coordinating laboratories and public research teams working on Handicap, Ageing and Neuroscience issues.

Setting up a framework for this research in the Rhône-Alpes region via the cluster is a way of creating a base and a springboard to facilitate interactions between players in the field whilst ensuring better assessment of costs, benefits, care and rehabilitation for people concerned.

The main objectives of the Cluster:

• To bring together the research facilities of the Rhône-Alpes region in the field of disability, ageing and neurosciences. There are a large number of little-known facilities spread out across the area that are not very visible but which have strong social and economic potential.
• To create a structured research network in order to ensure a strong internal dynamic, involve players from very different backgrounds, integrate them and make current facilities more effective, competitive, efficient and visible.
• Launch an external information campaign with charities and organisations for the disabled, aged and sick in order to analyse the real needs and to get them involved in the joint goal of better integration, increased autonomy and improved quality of life of affected people.
• To ensure that the results of research carried out by the cluster are transmitted to the socio-economic and political spheres which often lack information on the real needs and specific issues in question. Similarly, information will be passed on to universities for both initial and ongoing training programmes and courses, as well as their Doctoral Studies departments.
• To promote the value of the of the Cluster's players research work for regional economic development, strengthen industrial business ties and even contribute to creating new, start-up companies, facilitate interactions between businesses in the field or between businesses and research laboratories via the cluster, whilst ensuring a better assessment of costs, benefits, care and reintegration of affected people.
• To contribute to the international influence of the cluster and hence of the Rhône-Alpes region itself in this particular research speciality.
• To involve external resources to reinforce the Cluster's actions and build up team and project resources.
• To act as a think tank on the topic of future investments in the Rhône-Alpes region.

Scientific Coordinator: Claude Feuerstein, Grenoble Institut of Neurosciences
Contact: sebastien.lebreton@cluster-hvn.com
www.cluster-hvn.com