The NIH has just committed $46 million toward the White House’s BRAIN Initiative, with aims to delve deeper into understanding what makes the human mind – and brain – tick. The government just announced the 58 research centers and academics to whom the funding will go – it’s early stage, but quite promising.
“There’s a big gap between what we want to do in brain research and the technologies available to make exploration possible,” NIH Director Francis Collins said in a statement. “These initial awards are part of a 12-year scientific plan focused on developing the tools and technologies needed to make the next leap in understanding the brain.”
Collins has proposed the NIH contribute $4.5 billion to this BRAIN Initiative by 2025.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
The NIH isn’t the only source of funding for the BRAIN Initiative – also participating are DARPA, the National Science Foundation and the Food and Drug Administration. When the project was announced last year, it committed $100 million to the study of this critical organ. Since, President Obama has announced he’s upping that figure to $200 million in its second year. Companies like Google, General Electric and the Simons Foundation plan to up that ante by adding another $270 million in 2015, the New York Times reports. GlaxoSmithKline just created a $5 million Innovation Challenge Fund for bioelectronics that’s part of this package.
A comprehensive list of who has received awards can be found here. Some highlights:
–Robert Desimone at MIT is developing a less-invasive way to access the brain through its network of blood vessels to image, stimulate and monitor electrical and molecular activity
–David Feinberg at UC Berkeley is developing high sensitivity MRI coils that focus on the brain’s surface – imaging the activity and connections of the brain’s cortex on a micro scale
–Hyunjune Sebastian Seung at Princeton will use an online video game called Eyewire to work with “citizen scientists” to map how light is transformed into nerve signals by the circuits of the retina
–Florian Engert at Harvard is studying the see-through zebrafish’s neural circuitry, examining their form, function and plasticity
