Professor John Bekkers from the John Curtin School of Medical Research and his team are currently working on the neurons and circuits in the brain that underlie the sense of smell. His team focus on the olfactory cortex, a brain region that is responsible for our ability to recognise and remember odours.
Video transcript
[Images move through of Professor John Bekkers and another male talking and working on a computer system and looking at data and the camera zooms in on the male’s hands turning dials]
Professor John Bekkers: Study of the brain, is I think the most exciting area of research.
[Camera zooms out to show John and another male looking at data on a computer screen and the image changes to show John talking to the camera and text appears: Professor John Bekkers, Australian National University]
It’s one of the last big unknowns in biology, if not the whole of science and the kind of research that we do in particular.
[Images move through of the male’s hands adjusting dials, John listening, the male talking, the data they are looking at on a computer screen and John talking to the camera]
We’re using a sense of smell as a way of getting into the brain and the advantage of doing this is that the sense of smell is a very primitive sense which makes it simpler and easier to understand than other brain areas.
[Images move through of John and the male looking at a piece of equipment, the male adjusting the equipment, the male’s face, John talking and John in conversation with the male looking at data]
Funding that I received from the NHMRC allows me to hire young scientists, to pay for the research that is carried out in our lab and without that kind of support this research would be impossible.
[Music plays and the image of the data changes and morphs into the NHMRC logo and text appears: Building a Healthier Australia]
End of transcript.