BRAIN Multi-Council Working Group (MCWG) Meeting – January 2026

Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) 
Multi-Council Working Group (MCWG) Meeting 
January 30, 2026

On January 30, 2026, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative Multi-Council Working Group (MCWG) met virtually to discuss the state of the BRAIN Initiative and learn about new and upcoming projects.

Susan Weiss, PhD, Designated Federal Official of the MCWG, gave the welcome address. She provided an overview of the MCWG and a summary of the meeting agenda. Nita Farahany, JD, PhD, Co-Chair of the Neuroethics Working Group (NEWG), provided a summary of the NEWG meeting on January 29, 2026, where members discussed issues of privacy, consent, and bias in the development and use of brain foundation models.

John Ngai, PhD, Director of the NIH BRAIN Initiative and Chair of the MCWG, shared BRAIN Initiative updates. He welcomed two new co-leads for BRAIN Initiative scientific teams—Team T (training): Lauren Ullrich, PhD, and Team Data: Eunyoung Kim, PhD—and thanked Walter Koroshetz, MD, FAAN, for his tenure as NINDS Director. Dr. Ngai highlighted that the BRAIN Initiative has supported almost 2000 principal investigators at over 300 institutions since 2014. He noted that the BRAIN Initiative’s budget for fiscal year 2026 has not yet been released. Turning to BRAIN Initiative-related events held since the August 2025 MCWG meeting, Dr. Ngai discussed the BRAIN Initiative’s participation in the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2025 meeting in November, with a particular focus on the BRAIN Initiative Alliance Toolmakers Showcase at SfN. He also discussed the virtual three-day workshop organized by the BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN) on January 13–15, 2026. Dr. Ngai congratulated several BRAIN-funded investigators who have won awards in recent months, including the 2026 National Academy of Sciences awards, National Academy of Medicine induction, SfN 2025 prizes, the Transmitter Rising Stars of Neuroscience, and the Nature Methods method of the year.

Next, Dr. Ngai highlighted recent publications from BRAIN-funded investigators. Researchers from BICAN recently published twelve joint papers in Nature and Nature family journals describing their work on multimodal cell atlases of developing mouse, non-human primate, and human brains.[1] Dr. Ngai also highlighted a study published in Neuron that used transcriptomic atlases to show spatiotemporal heterogeneity of astrocytes in mice and marmosets[2] and a study published in Nature Neuroscience describing the development of brain stimulation technology that creates artificial perception in freely moving mice.[3]

Finally, Dr. Ngai provided an update on funding opportunities. Eleven active and seven forecasted funding opportunities can be found on https://grants.gov by searching “BRAIN Initiative.” Additionally, the NIH has published two Highlighted Topics (HT) of relevance to the BRAIN Initiative. The first HT focuses on building out the Data Knowledgebase Ecosystem and advancing NeuroAI. The second HT focuses on advancing human neuroscience and developing precision molecular therapies for treating brain disorders. Interested applicants can apply through an appropriate parent funding announcement and contact BRAIN Initiative staff to ensure that their application is properly tracked. In a brief question-and-answer session following his presentation, Dr. Ngai emphasized how research on brain cell atlases and precision molecular therapies inform each other. He also reminded MCWG members that NIH grant reviews are centralized at the Center for Scientific Review and provided details on how that process might influence review workflows and funding decisions moving forward. 

The MCWG meeting continued with a presentation from Roy Sillitoe, PhD, Professor of Pathology and Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine and NINDS Representative for MCWG. Dr. Sillitoe discussed his lab’s efforts to develop a mouse model for dystonia, the involuntary, sustained muscle co-contractions found in brain disorders like Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy. By targeting Vglut2, a gene that regulates the brain circuits connecting the inferior olive to the cerebellum, the Sillitoe lab successfully developed a knockout mouse model with a clear dystonic phenotype and no off-target changes in the brain. These mice did not experience seizures, as confirmed by electroencephalography, and did experience prolonged dystonia-like co-contractions, as confirmed by electromyography. The knockout mice exhibited erratic, burst-like neuronal firing in the deep cerebellar nuclei during youth and adulthood. Dystonia could also be induced in normal mice by using optogenetic manipulation to induce burst-like neuronal firing in the cerebellum. Dystonia and tremors can be temporarily attenuated in the Vglut2 knockout mice by delivering lidocaine to the cerebellar nuclei through mini osmotic pumps. Furthermore, deep brain stimulation (DBS) into the cerebellum and thalamus significantly decreased dystonia in the mutant mice, showing promise for these brain regions as DBS targets for humans living with dystonia who do not respond to stimulation at other established brain targets.

The meeting ended with a discussion about Dr. Sillitoe’s research. Topics included the potential to target the cerebellum in other conditions like schizophrenia; the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation as a non-invasive alternative to DBS; and the role of aging in the development of dystonia.

For more on the open session of the MCWG meeting, view the video recording. The next MCWG meeting will be held on May 8, 2026.