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New round of awards announced for cutting‐edge brain research
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
mental health weekly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1556-7583
pISSN - 1058-1103
DOI - 10.1002/mhw.31667
Subject(s) - brain research , leverage (statistics) , political science , brain drain , brain cell , mental health , management , public relations , psychology , public administration , neuroscience , psychiatry , economic growth , computer science , artificial intelligence , economics
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced Nov. 2 funding of more than 200 new awards, totaling over $220 million, through the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, an exciting transagency effort to arm researchers with revolutionary tools to fundamentally understand the neural circuits that underlie the healthy and diseased brain, NIH officials stated in a press release. Supported by Congress through both the regular appropriations process and the 21st Century Cures Act, this brings the total 2018 support for the program to more than $400 million, which is 50 percent more than the amount spent last year. Many of the new awards explore the human brain directly. Furthermore, the NIH is trying to leverage some BRAIN Initiative advances to help tackle the pain and opioid crisis. “The BRAIN Initiative is laying the foundation for improved ways to target brain circuits disrupted in brain disorders,” said Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., director of the NIH's National Institute of Mental Health.