In its first 10 years, the NIH BRAIN Initiative has set the stage for accelerated scientific progress for generations to come. Driving this unique enterprise is a strong commitment to open, ethical, and inclusive research—and reliance upon the energy and diversity of team science to make game-changing discoveries.
This year, reflecting on BRAIN’s decade of innovation, I asked each of the 10 NIH Institute and Center Directors that participate in this trans-NIH effort to reflect on how the BRAIN Initiative has advanced their mission and what new discoveries have been enabled by being part of this network. I was delighted when all 10 of these very busy NIH leaders agreed to share their thoughts. Thus far, we’ve posted five “BRAIN at 10” blogs.
Collectively, these voices amplify the value of the NIH BRAIN Initiative’s core goals: developing and using tools to advance neuroscience, lifting all boats with a clear commitment to sharing resources and knowledge, and changing the way neuroscience is done. In this post, I’ll coalesce what we heard from the first five IC Directors and stay tuned for a year-end wrap-up looking back on everyone’s perspective.
A tool-driven revolution
Over the past 10 years, the BRAIN Initiative has transformed the field of neuroscience beyond traditional boundaries of neurotransmission and brain region analyses by igniting a tool-driven revolution in systems neuroscience. As noted by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Director Dr. Walter Koroshetz, who cited physicist Dr. Freeman Dyson in his post, there are two types of revolutions: a concept-driven revolution that explains old things in new ways, and a tool-driven revolution that discovers new things that have yet to be explained. The NIH BRAIN Initiative has launched a tool-driven revolution, with many amazing discoveries yet to come.
We are still just at the beginning of this neuroscience revolution, and we need creativity from all quarters. Enabling innovation is at the heart of BRAIN’s strategy: to embrace diverse perspectives and expertise across not only neuroscience, but also engineering, math, computer science, statistics, and many other disciplines. One of our key strategies is to support large-scale multidisciplinary, multimodal research that generates technologies and resources that benefit the NIH Institutes and Centers that participate in the BRAIN Initiative—and more broadly, the entire scientific community.
Lifting all boats
The BRAIN Initiative’s open science approach ensures that tools and resources are accessible and affordable for everyone, lifting all boats. As noted by former National Institute on Mental Health Director Dr. Josh Gordon, scientists at NIMH and elsewhere now have tools to rapidly expand our understanding of complex human behaviors to develop truly transformative and personalized therapies for various mental illnesses. As stated by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Director Dr. George Koob, BRAIN Initiative-funded research has been a game-changer for alcohol research through genetically encoded biosensors coupled with cell-type specific multiomic signatures that allow—in real time—in vivo manipulation of specific cell types and in vivo detection of neurochemical and electrical signals. Agnostic to diseases or life stages, BRAIN Initiative research is also helping to define neurodevelopmental biomarkers to predict neurodegenerative disorders later in life. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Director Dr. Diana Bianchi credits BRAIN research with critical advances in rehabilitation therapies, including for stroke—the global leader in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are also among the top 10 global causes of DALYs. National Institute on Aging Director Dr. Richard Hodes describes tremendous progress through the development of two new rich open-source data resources: the Alzheimer’s Disease Multimodal Atlas Projects and the Seattle Alzheimer’s Disease Brain Cell Atlas are identifying brain cell types and circuits important in Alzheimer’s disease.
It is my firm belief that by lifting all boats, advancing brain knowledge across diseases and life stages, we are on the cusp of a new generation of targeted, circuit-based treatments for many neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders.
Changing the way we do science
The BRAIN Initiative has been intentional—and vocal—about the need to embrace all ways of thinking by allowing highly diverse teams to self-assemble to solve what’s arguably the toughest problem in biology: understanding the human brain. It is common for BRAIN investigative teams to consist not only of neuroscientists, but also of physicists, engineers, mathematicians, chemists, physician scientists, and human research participants who work together collaboratively. And recognizing that monitoring and modulating brain circuits elicit profound questions about individual autonomy, free will, and privacy, the NIH BRAIN Initiative is in close and frequent contact with individuals with lived experience as well as with ethical experts. We consider neuroethics a core component of human brain research and thus fund studies to explore new and complex scenarios in which people and machines are connected in increasingly intimate ways. As just one example, BRAIN-funded research is examining the use of deep brain stimulation to treat children with a range of neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions—as well as developing needed decision-support tools for families and health care providers who care for these children.
The human brain is the most powerful, flexible, and energy-efficient computational machine known to humankind. To help unravel the mysteries of what makes us human, BRAIN is building a new generation of scientists and engineers who are showing us how to create and work in new team environments never before seen in the neurosciences. In our quest to find treatments and cures for the hundreds of brain disorders that affect 1 in 3 people across the globe, we must continue the hard work to sustain a solid foundation for the future of neuroscience.
With respect and gratitude,