MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders

神经发育障碍是一组由神经系统发育变化引起的疾病。智力残疾、自闭症谱系障碍和许多形式的癫痫都是由典型的大脑发育程序中的障碍引起的。即使是精神病和相关的疾病，通常出现在生命的后期，也被认为是由发育引起的。发育性大脑疾病通常会导致终生残疾，目前的治疗充其量只是治标不治本。大脑发育是一个由遗传信息指导并受许多环境因素影响的高度精心策划的过程。人类的大脑在二十年的时间里发育，这是我们生活中非常重要的一部分。在此期间，大脑从一个微观结构成长为一个非凡的器官，使我们能够与物理世界互动，交流、学习和想象未知的事物。这个非常旷日持久的计划的变化会导致神经发育障碍。发育性大脑障碍是由遗传和环境(非遗传)影响共同作用的结果。过去十年的研究表明，基因变化是发育性大脑疾病最重要的风险因素，无论它们是在生命早期表现出来，如自闭症谱系障碍，还是只在临床上可在年轻人中发现，如精神病。人类遗传学的最新进展已经确定了这些疾病的特定突变。不幸的是，我们仍然不知道这些突变和伴随的环境侮辱是如何导致神经发育障碍的。五年前，当该中心成立时，我们的愿景是在伦敦国王学院建立一个世界级的中心，其研究计划将改变我们对神经发育障碍起源的理解。我们已经创造了一个研究环境，在这种环境中，我们正在有效地消除一些阻碍我们取得进展的界限，例如基础科学家和临床科学家之间缺乏互动，以及从事不同但相关疾病工作的临床专家之间缺乏互动。我们战略的核心是创新的博士项目，该项目正在培养新一代科学家，他们拥有在基础和临床研究环境中轻松工作的技能，并保持跨群体的合作。设计治疗神经发育障碍的新药的关键限制仍然是我们对受影响个人大脑中发生的变化了解不足。在接下来的五年里，我们努力的主要重点仍然是探索神经发育障碍的生物学机制。从长远来看，我们的目标是与工业伙伴、其他研究中心和患者协会合作，将新知识转化为临床进步，改变受影响个人及其家人的生活。

Neurodevelopmental disorders are a group of conditions which are caused by an alteration in the development of the nervous system. Intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorder and many forms of epilepsy are caused by disturbances in the typical programme of brain development. Even psychosis and related disorders, which typically emerge later in life, are thought to have a developmental origin. Developmental brain disorders often cause life-long disability and current treatments, at best, are merely palliative.Brain development is a highly orchestrated process directed by genetic information and influenced by many environmental factors. The human brain develops over two decades, a very substantial part of our life. During that time, the brain grows from a microscopic structure to a remarkable organ that enables us to interact with the physical world, communicate, learn and imagine the unknown. Alterations in this very protracted program result in neurodevelopmental disorders. Developmental brain disorders arise through a combination of genetic and environmental (non-genetic) influences. Research over the past decade has shown that genetic changes are the most important risk factor for developmental brain disorders, independently of whether they manifest early in life, such as autism spectrum disorder or only become clinically detectable in young adults, such as psychosis. Recent advances in human genetics have identified specific mutations with these disorders. Unfortunately, we still do not understand how these mutations and concomitant environmental insults cause neurodevelopmental disorders. When the Centre was established five years ago, our vision was to build a world-class Centre at King's College London with research programmes that will transform our understanding of the origin of neurodevelopmental disorders. We have created a research environment in which we are effectively dissolving some of the boundaries preventing our progress, such as the lack of interaction between basic and clinical scientists and between clinical specialists working on different but related disorders. At the core of our strategy is an innovative PhD Programme that is training a new generation of scientists with the skills to comfortably work across basic and clinical research settings and sustain collaborations across groups.The crucial limitation for the design of new medicines for neurodevelopmental disorders continues to be our insufficient understanding of the changes that occur in the brain of affected individuals. In the next five years, the main focus of our efforts will remain the exploration of the biological mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders. In the long term, we aim to translate the new knowledge into clinical advances that change the lives of affected individuals and their families, in collaboration with industrial partners, other research centres and patient associations.