(Sept. 30, 2014) The National Institutes of Health has announced the first $46 million in research funding for its Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative.
The funding will support 58 research projects aimed at developing new technologies to understand brain circuitry and view the brain in action.
The ultimate goal is to use deeper understanding of the brain to produce new treatments for brain disorders such as autism, epilepsy, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s and traumatic brain injury. The World Health Organization estimates that such disorders affect more than a billion people worldwide.
“This is a game-changing investment that will transform the landscape of brain research in the near term and promises to lay the groundwork for breakthroughs that will be felt by people and families living with autism,” says neuroscientist Dan Smith, Autism Speaks senior director for discovery science. "The technologies at the heart of the project will improve brain monitoring in real-time and enable us to link signs and symptoms of autism to their precise sources."
“How do the billions of cells in our brain control our thoughts, feelings and movements? That’s ultimately what the BRAIN Initiative is about,” says Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. “Understanding this will greatly help us meet the rising challenges that brain disorders pose for the future health of the nation.”
The 58 projects announced today include:
* the creation of a wearable scanner that produces images of the human brain in action,
* laser technology able to guide nerve-cell firing,
* a device that stimulates specific brain circuits with radio waves,
* and a method for identifying complex brain circuits with DNA “barcodes.”
Most of the research projects share the common goal of advancing understanding of how specific brain circuits function. Altogether, they will involve more than 100 investigators in 15 states and several countries.
“The human brain is the most complicated biological structure in the known universe. We’ve only just scratched the surface in understanding how it works,” says NIH Director Francis Collins. “This is just the beginning of an ambitious journey, and we’re excited about the possibilities.”
Last year, President Obama launched the BRAIN Initiative as a large-scale effort to equip researchers with the tools needed to advance the treatment of a wide variety of brain disorders. Four federal agencies — NIH, the National Science Foundation, the Food and Drug Administration and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — have already committed more than $110 million to the initiative for the fiscal year 2014.
Later today, the White House is hosting a conference on the BRAIN Initiative where new federal and private sector commitments will be unveiled in support of this ambitious and important effort. For more on the anticipated announcement,see “More Groups Join Project on the Brain,” in today’s New York Times.
For brief descriptions of all the research projects announced today, click here.
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