With the annual Fellows' exchange dinner with Clare Hall, St Cross's sister college at Cambridge postponed until next summer, the College was very pleased to participate in a special St Cross-Clare Hall Fellows Discussion Panel entitled "Fifty Shades of Grey Matter" on Friday 19 November, jointly organised by the St Cross Senior Tutor (Academic Affairs & Programmes) and the Clare Hall Senior Tutor.
The panel comprised two St Cross Fellows and two Clare Hall Fellows, who spoke on their brain-related research followed by a Q&A with the audience. The panellists were:
Professor Michael Sharpe (St Cross)
Dr Bob Carlyon (Clare Hall)
Professor Cornelia van Duijn (St Cross)
Professor Karen Ersche (Clare Hall)
The fascinating talks covered a broad variety of brain-related research with an opening survey of the mind-body dualism and controversies about mental illness, moving onto research on hearing loss and cochlear implants, then a review of research into Alzheimer's Disease and the latest discovery of biomarkers, and finally concluding with an insight into drug addictions and genetic pathways of predisposition which can run in families.
The Q&A had a lively discussion on these and related topics with both sets of College Fellows looking forward to continuing the conversations in person at next year's exchange dinner.
