Heather McCann
Manager, Sydney Brain Bank
Current Appointments
Director Sydney Brain BankDr Claire Shepherd is the Director of the Sydney Brain Bank at Neuroscience Research Australia. She trained in neuroscience and completed her PhD in Alzheimers disease at the University of Sheffield, UK. After completing her PhD she relocated to Sydney to pursue her interest in the neuropathology of dementia. Soon after her move, Claire was awarded the prestigious Rolf Edgar Lake Fellowship from the University of Sydney and subsequently directed a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) project grant as CIA. In 2000 Claire was awarded the inaugural Franz Nissl Young Investigator Prize in Neuroscience in recognition of achievements in her early post-doctoral years. She now runs the Sydney Brain Bank, which is a research facility that collects, characterises and stores brain tissue for research into neurodegenerative disease. Claire is also the Director of the Shepherd Dementia Research Laboratory at NeuRA and lead investigator on the NeuRA Volunteers Brain Donor Program a longitudinal research program aimed at investigating the clinical consequences of the cellular changes that occur during ageing. In October 2019, Claire received funding from the Brain Foundation for a new research program that will investigate the presence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the brain tissue of a large population of well-characterised individuals held by the Sydney Brain Bank and determine any association with repetitive traumatic brain injury exposure. On 27 November, the National Rugby League (NRL) announced support of a Newcastle University-based research program for former players. The participants in this program will be invited to donate their brains to the Sydney Brain Bank after death to facilitate medical research. This is part of Claire's newest research into how sports-related brain changes impact on a players quality of life.
2023, 21 Aug
Effects of STN/SNr deep brain stimulation in a case of progressive supranuclear palsy with a Parkinson disease phenotype
View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1093/jnen/nlad052
2023 Aug
Treatment with the copper compound CuATSM has no significant effect on motor neuronal pathology in patients with ALS
View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1111/nan.12919
2023, 01 Mar
Riluzole is associated with decreasing neuritic plaque severity in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awac467
2022 Sep
Post-mortem brain histological examination in the substantia nigra and subthalamic nucleus in Parkinson's disease following deep brain stimulation.
View full journal-article on http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/36188463
2022, 04 Jul
Prevalence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the Sydney Brain Bank
View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcac189
2021, 13 Jul
Aging-Related Tau Astrogliopathy in Aging and Neurodegeneration
View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11070927
2021 Apr
Coexisting Lewy body disease and clinical parkinsonism in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
View full journal-article on http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/33793036
2021 Mar
Globular glial tauopathy with a mutation in MAPT and unusual TDP-43 proteinopathy in a patient with behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia.
View full journal-article on http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/33744978
2020 Oct
A Practical Approach to Differentiate the Frontotemporal Tauopathy Subtypes.
View full journal-article on http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/32954432
2020 Jul
Alzheimer's amyloid‐β and tau protein accumulation is associated with decreased expression of the LDL receptor‐associated protein in human brain tissue
View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.1672
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