Brain and Mind Centre awards collaborative research grants
Photo from left to right, top to bottom: Dr Ann Na Cho, Dr Asheeta Prasad, Dr Deanna Varley, Dr Jessica Leake, Dr Charlotte Feakins, Dr Rebecca Raeside, A/Prof Minkang Kim, Dr Mike Seymour, Dr Nate Zettna, Dr Jason Dibbs.
The BMC Engagement Collaborative Grant is endorsed by the BMC Executive Leadership Committee and provides an award of up to $20,000 in funding per award annually to successful applicants who meet the scheme’s objectives, funding, and eligibility requirements.
We are delighted to announce the recipients of the Emerging Collaborators Grants 2025. These grants aim to connect researchers at the Brain and Mind Centre with collaborators from a range of disciplines across the University. This year we have funded a record number of applications.
Dr Deanna Varley
Dr Deanna Varley
Dr Varley from the Faculty of Medicine and Health, and the Matilda Centre will be collaborating with Dr Frank Iorfino of the Youth Mental Health research team. Their project: Developing a common metric for cross-scale mental health data comparison in treatment-seeking young people.
'With the support of this funding, our work together will advance a much-needed solution to the widespread inconsistency in how psychological distress is measured in clinical research and across youth mental health services. Ultimately, this project will contribute to more consistent, meaningful use of mental health data and improved mental health care for young people,' says Dr Deanna Varley.
Dr Asheeta Prasad
Dr Asheeta Prasad
Dr Asheeta Prasad is a neuroscientist focused on the neurobiology of neuropsychiatric disorders, from the Faculty of Medicine and Health. This project will collaborate with Professor Michael Bowen, co-founder of the Translational Psychopharmacology research team for a multidisciplinary approach to Schizophrenia.
This project applies multidisciplinary approaches of computational and spatial transcriptomics in human postmortem Schizophrenia cases to improve understanding of Schizophrenia and potential therapeutic outcomes.
‘This collaboration applies a multidisciplinary approach to Schizophrenia to advance the understanding of Schizophrenia and potential therapeutic outcome,' says Dr Asheeta Prasad.
Dr Ann Na Cho
Dr Ann Na Cho
Dr Ann Na Cho is a Sydney Horizon Fellow, and a stem cell engineer and lecturer in the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Sydney. Ann-Na's researcher group, hBMS, will be collaborating with Dr Sicong Tu by using organoid technology to model hyperexcitability and following mechanism for new therapeutic target. Dr Sicong Tu is the co-founder of the Neurotherapeutic Innovations research team at the Brain and Mind Centre.
Dr Cho is an emerging leader in the new discipline of lab-grown human organs, organoids. Ann-Na is an inventor of seven international patents in the US, EU and Korea. Ann-Na’s research group is pioneering a sophisticated human brain grown in the lab using multidisciplinary research in stem cell biology, tissue engineering, gene engineering, bioelectronics and neuroscience.
Full List of Recipients:
- Dr Mike Seymour, Sydney Business School
- Dr Deanna Varley, Faculty of Medicine & Health, Matilda Centre
- Dr Jason Dibbs, Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning
- Dr Charlotte Feakins, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, School of Humanities
- Dr Asheeta Prasad, Faculty of Medicine & Health, School of Medical Sciences
- A/Prof Tessa Garside, Faculty of Medicine & Health, Sydney Medical School
- Dr Jessica Leake, Faculty of Science, School of Psychology
- Dr Nate Zettna, Sydney Business School
- Dr Ann Na Cho, Faculty of Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering
- Dr Megan Steain, Faculty of Medicine & Health, School of Medical Sciences, Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute
- Dr Jack Collins, Faculty of Medicine & Health, Sydney Pharmacy School,
- Dr Rebecca Raeside, Faculty of Medicine & Health, Sydney Nursing School
- A/Prof Minkang Kim, Faculty of Social Sciences, Sydney School of Education and Social Work
Brain and Mind Centre Engagement Collaborative Grants
Subscribe to our Front of Mind monthly newsletter to stay across the next open dates for our internal schemes in 2026.
The scheme is open to University of Sydney researchers who are currently non-members of a Brain and Mind Centre endorsed team, and/or strategically aligned research clinic or group supporting the achievement of research objectives of the endorsed teams, to ignite and lead cross-faculty, multidisciplinary teamwork by partnering with our teams.