The Royal Children’s Hospital / Murdoch Childrens Research Institute Brain Development Program

The RCH/MCRI Brain Development Program has been running since 2001. It has continued to grow and expand over the years and now has become a multidisciplinary clinical and research program for children with brain malformations, including many children with abnormalities of corpus callosum development. The program is clinically-driven, and at its heart is the Brain Development Neurogenetics Clinic run by A/Prof Rick Leventer (a consultant child neurologist from the RCH) and Dr George McGillivray (a consultant clinical geneticist from the Victorian Clinical Genetics Services (VCGS)). This clinic runs on a weekly basis. The aim of the clinic is to provide a “one stop shop” for a comprehensive neurological and genetics assessment for children with brain malformations. Whilst this clinic does not provide ongoing routine care for children with brain malformations, it is able to provide a comprehensive and authoritative assessment of children, including physical examination, review of brain MRI scans and the initiation of genetic testing where appropriate. Referrals to other services and clinicians can be made from the clinic where indicated. The coordinator of the clinic is Ms Kate Pope. Kate is trained as both a nurse and a genetics counsellor.

Kate is also the coordinator of the Genetics of Brain Development Research program. Each patient who is seen in the clinic is invited to be part of research aimed at better understanding the causes, consequences and best treatments for children with brain malformations. Our research team includes laboratory geneticists, radiologists, pathologists and neuropsychologists. We are closely linked with the University of Melbourne. We collaborate with groups both nationally and internationally, including with Professor Linda Richards at the Queensland Brain Institute and Professor Elliot Sherr at University of California San Francisco.

Members of team are founding members of the newly formed “International Research Consortium for the Corpus Callosum and Cerebral Connectivity” or IRC5, which is an international network of clinicians and researchers dedicated to a better understanding of disorders of the corpus callosum. Many members of the IRC5 will be attending the Cortical Connections conference in 2017 which will be held at the RCH/MCRI in the days immediately prior to the AusDoCC conference. There will be an opportunity to meet and hear from some of the IRC5 members who will be speaking at the AusDoCC conference.

For further information regarding the Brain Development Clinic or the research program, please contact Kate Pope – kate.pope@mcri.edu.au.