Technologies and Facilities

If your organisation is considering a collaboration with the School of Nursing, Psychotherapy & Community Health, in addition to the research expertise of our faculty, we can provide state-of-the-art facilities and equipment for e.g. development, simulation and testing:

Biosciences Laboratory

In addition to DCU’s biosciences facilities, the School has a fully equipped biomedical laboratory for routine activity, as well as dedicated Class II laboratories for human cell culture and pathogen handling. For further information, please contact Dr Patricia Johnson.

The Translational Bioscience Laboratory also incorporates the Behavioural Neuroscience Laboratory – Psychopharmacology Division

The Behavioural Neuroscience Laboratory
The Behavioural Neuroscience Laboratory was established in September 2011 within the School of Nursing and Human Sciences as a division of the Cognitive and Behavioural Sciences.

Our research contributes towards a greater understanding of how psychotropic drugs affect the brain and behaviour under normal conditions or in psychiatric disorders, such as drug dependence. Current research focuses on interactions between drugs of abuse and the brain reward system, as well as effects of psychoactive drugs in impulsivity and attentional performance during adolescence and adulthood. More specifically, a strong focus of our work is on the effects of potential and/or newly developed therapeutic agents for the treatment of nicotine dependence. Further, the interactive effects of cannabinoid compounds with other drugs in the brain reward system is of particular interest. Additionally, a recent strong interest has emerged on the effects of alkaloid and flavonoid compounds on behaviour and drug dependence, specifically nicotine dependence. This latter topic has been the focus of a PhD study supported and funded by the School of nursing and Human Sciences.

For further information on current research, recent projects, and prospects for collaboration, please contact Dr. Styliani (Stella) Vlachou at stella.vlachou@dcu.ie or at +353-1-700-7421.

Clinical Education Centre

The Clinical Education Centre is our purpose-built, state-of-the-art facility for clinical teaching and research. With adult and child ward areas, computer-based human patient simulators, and a fully-furnished community flat, it is used, for example, in testing sensor technologies before they are installed in the homes of people with dementia. The CEC also has a communication suite for video and audio recordings of interactions and interviews used in education and research.

Healthy Living Centre

The Healthy Living Centre (HLC) provides an array of health care services to the local community and to the country. It offers a unique integration of health care research and practice; and the translation of generated knowledge into practical health benefit to the community.

For more information, contact the Health Living Centre.