November 2020 issue
November 30, 2020 | The National Institutes of Health will fund more than 175 grants, totaling nearly $500 million, through the NIH’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative, part of a large effort among federal and non-federal partners to use knowledge about how the brain works to develop more effective therapies for neurological disorders.
“Recent discoveries and new technologies supported by the BRAIN Initiative provide a solid foundation for the next phase of the program, which will focus on large transformative projects and lay the foundation for novel interventions for human brain disorders,” said John Ngai, director of the NIH BRAIN Initiative. “We are moving closer to a complete list of all of the components in the brain and learning how those parts work together.”
The researchers represent a variety of scientific disciplines from chemistry to engineering to psychology and more. The new awards include efforts to use DBS to enhance sleep in people with Parkinson’s disease; explore the neural circuits behind pain; employ ultrasound technology to precisely deliver drugs to the brain; and help people with acute spinal cord injury recover movements and bladder control.
Scientists are also making significant advances in human brain imaging by developing a new type of MRI scanner to watch the brain in action as someone moves; generating ultra-high resolution images of brain chemistry using new PET technology; and using ultrasound to noninvasively map brain electrical activity.
Some grants support integrated research on neuroethical implications of BRAIN-funded neuroscience projects, including issues concerning certain types of neurosurgery and ethical challenges of using mobile neuroimaging technology in field studies.
The BRAIN Initiative started in 2013 as a large-scale effort to accelerate neuroscience research by providing researchers with tools to study and treat brain disorders. To date, more than 900 awards totaling approximately $1.8 billion have been supported by the initiative.
