McGill University is teaming up with the University of Oxford in an effort to quicken the pace of research on the human brain on both sides of the Atlantic.
The new alliance, to be announced today, is expected to speed advances in areas of shared expertise such as Alzheimer's disease and stroke by broadening the scope of research and applying different methods to similar problems. It will begin next year with an exchange program for graduate and postgraduate students and, if all goes well, is expected to grow into joint research projects.
Rémi Quirion, a professor of psychiatry and a vice-dean at McGill's faculty of medicine, said such collaboration is key in areas such as brain imaging or genetics, which benefit from access to large, diverse populations. Both schools, he said, share specialties, but are taking different approaches to tackling problems. Collaborations of this kind, he said, are often the best way to advance research.
"Joining forces will accelerate the pace of discoveries," predicted Dr. Quirion, who will lead the Canadian half of the project. "The world is getting smaller and smaller, so to have these partnerships, to maximize research dollars and the impact of the research that we do, is very critical."
The new transatlantic pact developed quickly after principal Heather Munroe-Blum visited Britain this spring. With the help of Claudio Cuello, the chair of pharmacology at McGill and a former Oxford professor, Ms. Munroe-Blum met with leaders from the prestigious British school to discuss research initiatives. Both universities are known for their research in neurosciences.
The initial exchange program, expected to last three years, is being paid for by a $300,000 donation from Arnold Steinberg, a long-time supporter of McGill who recently became its chancellor. A matching donation will pay for Oxford's half of the initiative.
The arrangement may also involve visiting positions for faculty, Dr. Quirion said, and is expected to begin in January. Key areas for research will be brain imaging, stroke and dementia, he said.
At first, the exchange will involve students from the faculty of medicine, but will likely be expanded to include graduate students from the faculties of science, engineering and eventually business. About half a dozen students from each university will take part in the exchange.
The Oxford partnership is the first of what the university hopes will be several agreements with universities around the world with expertise in neuroscience. The need to access large populations for research makes such collaboration key, he said.
"The brain is the last frontier, in a sense. To understand what happens in the brain you need to follow a very large number of subjects over many, many years," Dr. Quirion said. "Montreal is relatively large, but in the scheme of things our population is very small. And by pairing with a group like the one at Oxford, that will open doors."