NIH releases bold and game-changing report calling for $4.5 billion in brain-research funding

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Bioengineer.org http://bioengineer.org/nih-releases-bold-game-changing-report-calling-4-5-billion-brain-research-funding/

Some news today about the federal BRAIN Initiative – a major research plan aimed at revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain. (Stanford neurologist William Newsome, PhD, is co-chair of the initiative.) Francis Collins, MD, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health, today heard and accepted a working group’s recommendations for the initiative’s budget and long-term scientific vision.

As outlined in an NIH release:

The report drafted by the ACD BRAIN Working Group maps out a sustained commitment of $4.5 billion in new federal funding over 10 years beginning in fiscal year 2016 to achieve seven primary goals. NIH already announced an investment of $40 million in fiscal year 2014 and President Obama has made a request for $100 million for NIH’s component of the initiative in his fiscal year 2015 budget.

The NIH efforts on the BRAIN Initiative will seek to map the circuits of the brain, measure the fluctuating patterns of electrical and chemical activity flowing within those circuits, and understand how their interplay creates our unique cognitive and behavioral capabilities.

Collins called the recommendations “bold and game changing” and noted, “As the Human Genome Project did with precision medicine, the BRAIN Initiative promises to transform the way we prevent and treat devastating brain diseases and disorders while also spurring economic development.”

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The above story is based on materials provided by Standford Scope Blog.

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