Tbilisi State University has opened a state-of-the-art interuniversity translational neuroscience research laboratory (“Hub”), which will provide interested researchers and students an opportunity to explore cellular and molecular mechanisms of the nervous system.

The laboratory was established as part of the CIF grant project “Development and Implementation of a Modern Translational Neuroscience Program in Georgian Universities for the Improvement of Higher Medical Education.” The interuniversity hub involves three partners: Tbilisi State University, Caucasus International University, and Grigol Robakidze University.

 As part of the project, an interuniversity structured doctoral program in Translational Neuroscience was prepared for the consortium member universities with the support of international experts - Prof  Zaal Kokaia (Lund University, Sweden) and Prof  Saak V. Ovsepian (University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom). After accreditation of the program, PhD students will work under the supervision of Georgian and foreign Professors.

The opening ceremony of the laboratory was attended by Nino Gvenetadze, TSU’s Deputy Rector; Maia Bitskinashvili, Dean of the TSU Faculty of Medicine; Tamar Sanikidze, Executive Director of the Innovation, Inclusion and Quality Project – Georgia I2Q ​​(WB), as well as representatives of partner universities, professors, and students.

The head of the project, the director of the TSU Institute of Morphology, Professor Dimitri Kordzaia said that the Translational Neuroscience Research and Training Laboratory at TSU will offer training to students from TSU and partner universities. “The project’s goal is to develop an educational program that integrates cutting edge research technologies in neurobiology and digital tools into the neurophysiology with the learning process.

Dimitri Kordzaia expressed special gratitude to Professor Saak Ovsepian for the lectures and training courses he conducted and noted that together with him will be continued the efforts to make the doctoral program (developed within the project) international, to provide PhD students the opportunity for internships at the University of Greenwich. 

Tamar Sanikidze, the Executive Director of the Innovation, Inclusion and Quality Project - Georgia I2Q ​​(WB), said that the project is being implemented by the Ministry of Education, Science and Youth of Georgia with the support of the World Bank. “This project is a visible example of how a higher education institution can improve learning quality, make research more interesting and use the latest technologies in the process,” said Sanikidze.

The event was organized by the Faculty of Medicine of Tbilisi State University and the Aleksandre Natishvili Institute of Morphology of TSU.