UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN BRAIN EMPOWERING COLLABORATION / ADVANCING KNOWLEDGE UNLOCKING MYSTERIES Our brains produce the unique individual qualities that define us, but a failure of brain health can devastate lives and families.

Explaining the extraordinary capacity of the brain to control all that we do, and all that we are, is one of the most exciting challenges of our time.

Scientists in the Brown Institute for Brain Science (BIBS) are mapping cells and connections, decoding signals, and mimicking and repairing the complex functions of the nervous system. The research is bold, innovative and novel, pushing past this last frontier of biomedicine to enable better mental health and to produce fascinating new insights into how we think, feel and behave.

BrownTogether will build on the excellence of brain science at Brown, recruit- ing and retaining brilliant scholars, supporting research with state-of-the-art “BIBS is making today’s laboratories and facilities, forging new research collaborations, and training the next generation of brain scientists. discoveries and training Right now in BIBS, an interdisciplinary team of engineers, neuroscientists, tomorrow’s leaders. Our neurologists and neurosurgeons is leading the clinical trial of a brain-computer brain science researchers interface that allows people who cannot move or speak to control computers, and clinicians are generat- robotic arms and other devices directly with their thoughts. ing new knowledge about Another BIBS team is working to endow brain cells with the ability to sense problems — like an epileptic seizure — and to calm affected circuits before how the brain works and symptoms even start. A five-lab collaboration in BIBS is combing through mul- developing ways to mimic tiple species for genes in common that can counteract ALS. A research team is putting its inexpensively bioengineered “mini-brains” to work in studies on complex brain function. traumatic brain injury and regenerative medicine. And multiple investigators BIBS aims to improve are studying how early life stress alters childhood brain development in order to define the healthiest conditions for the maturing brain. people’s lives, including Building on more than 25 years of collaborative brain science research at those with autism, ALS, Brown, BIBS now fuels innovative and groundbreaking research among its epilepsy, neurodegenera- community of more than 130 scholars at Brown and its seven affiliated hospi- tals. Research ranges from basic science to the clinic, and spans the life and tion, addiction, depression physical sciences, computer science, mathematics, engineering, humanities and schizophrenia.” and medicine. And a point of pride is that Brown students are involved in all aspects of research in BIBS laboratories. DIANE LIPSCOMBE Professor of Neuroscience Director, Brown Institute for Brain Science Through targeted investments, the Institute will not only build on the world-class science shaping our understanding of the brain, but it will also solidify Brown’s position as one of the best institutions where the next generation of brain scientists is trained. One in four Brown undergraduates takes Introduction to Neuroscience, and 170 students recently graduated with concentrations in brain science fields. The Department of Neuroscience graduate program, with more than 50 doctoral students, is among the five largest Ph.D. programs at Brown.

Brown is also jumpstarting the research of young faculty members with a recently awarded $10.5 million federal grant for a center focused on the neuroscience of attention and related behaviors.

Through BrownTogether, we will increase:

Faculty and Graduate Student Support: We will hire leading professors — influential veterans and rising stars — in strategic topics such as molecular neuroscience, neural systems, computational neuroscience, behavior and neuroengineering to consolidate Brown’s strengths and to add expertise in important new areas. We’ll also attract the best students with graduate fellowships and new opportunities for research and internships.

Program Support: With discretionary funds, the BIBS director will jumpstart innovative early-stage research projects, acquire essential high-end equipment, launch teaching and research programs, retain faculty, and provide new faculty startup funds.

Space: BIBS plans a major expansion with new space to accommodate its rapid growth. A new biotech facility is planned for Providence’s Jewelry District, an ideal location that is proximate to the Warren Alpert Medical School, the Laboratory for Molecular Medicine and key affiliated hospitals.

BrownTogether will help establish the Brown Institute for Brain Science as an internationally recognized leader in brain re- search. BIBS can have a transformative impact on the study of the brain and its relationship to cognition, emotions, decision-making, behavior and disease.

Together, we can help unlock and explain the complexity and mysteries of the brain. We can fuel the discovery of treatments and support the creation of technologies to improve lives.

COLLABORATING TO FIND SOLUTIONS

Eric Morrow, M.D. Associate Professor of Biology Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior

Every parent of a child on the autism spectrum asks the question: Why? Eric Morrow is working to find the answer.

Morrow performs research at Brown and clinical work at Bradley Hospital. But his focus is singular.

He is searching for the “why” of autism.

Morrow’s team has illuminated the genetic underpinnings of Christianson Syndrome, a neurodevelopmental condition related to autism. He studies the cause of this and related childhood disorders in the lab. And, together with colleagues at the Brown Institute for Brain Science (BIBS), Bradley Hospital and other Rhode Island partners, they have established a first-of-its-kind statewide registry of families affected by it. BIBS helps to makes such collaboration easy.

With every child diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, the work grows more urgent.