To understand the brain, University researchers turn to the Brain Institute — a cross-disciplinary initiative seeking to develop treatments, perform neurological research and expand resources available to scientists and clinicians alike.
The Brain Institute was created last year as a part of University President Teresa Sullivan’s Cornerstone Plan, which envisioned the development of educational opportunities and facilities for the University with a focus on “pan-University” research. After drafting a series of written proposals and reviews, a committee — including Thomas C. Katsouleas, executive vice president and provost, and the Interim Vice President for Research Phillip Parrish — established the Brain Institute as the University’s second pan-University institute.
Intended to unify multiple areas of research and treatment, the Brain Institute emphasizes the integration of professionals from a myriad of backgrounds into the University’s neuroscience community.
“We’ve had a neuroscience graduate program since the late 1970s that is done jointly by the College and the School of Medicine, with an alternation of leadership between the two sides,” said Dr. Jaideep Kapur, professor of neurology and director of the Brain Institute. “But there is a large community of scientists in engineering, clinical medicine, neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatry that can be brought in with the Brain Institute.”
Asst. Biology Prof. Christopher Deppmann hopes the creation of this synergistic web of diverse researchers will facilitate the frequency of scientific breakthroughs.
“The philosophy behind this is that the most innovative scientific discovery happens at the interfaces of collaboration … It’s hyper collegial and hyper collaborative,” Deppmann said. “So the question was to figure out a way to get neuroscience research from all over Grounds — the Medical School, the College, Engineering — under one umbrella and give them a platform to talk to each other. That is what really inspired the Brain Institute.”
Utilizing financial support from the Cornerstone Plan, the Brain Institute has begun to promote and support interdisciplinary research by offering grants to faculty and students.
“We’ve funded seven grants where people from different disciplines come together to advance neuroscience,” Kapur said. “Our belief is that team science can take on major problems in neuroscience and bring our treatments to the society.”
The Institute will also expand the size and variety of researchers involved through cluster hires, recruiting faculty and students from unique, focused field. Recently, Neuroscience Prof. Jianhua “JC” Cang was hired from Northwestern University.
“It is open to anyone who identifies themselves as a neuroscientist,” Kapur said. “The whole idea of the Brain Institute is to pitch a big tent and bring in as many people interested in neuroscience … The field is founded on uniting people with very different expertise and knowledge bases to deal with the extremely complex problem that is the brain.”
Objectives of the Brain Institute include doubling the size of the neuroscience graduate program and expanding the undergraduate neuroscience program.
“As the director of the neuroscience graduate program, already seeing its expansion and having the program and the Brain Institute fit hand-and-glove is really important,” Deppmann said. “Because I think within the collaborative interface, there always has to be a graduate student. The graduate student is going to drive that great collaboration — pushing very bold, ambitious, new initiatives to actually happen.”
Kapur and Deppmann both said that encouraging discovery subsequently facilitates the improvement of patient treatment methods and the quality of human life — bringing scientific benchwork to patient beside.
“We want to enhance discovery and apply that knowledge from discovery to bring welfare to patients,” Kapur said. “And we’ve done that. If you see the example of Focused Ultrasound, a new technology where you can do brain surgery using ultrasound — here, sound waves go through the brain, focus on a spot and cause surgery. So this sounds Star Wars-like, but it’s happening here at U.Va.”
Moving forward, Kapur said he hopes to see the Brain Institute transform from what is now an organizational framework into a physical institution.
“It would be wonderful to bring the neuroscience community together in a real space rather than just virtually,” Kapur said. “One way would be an interdisciplinary building that has student classrooms in it — that has data scientists, neuroscientists, engineers, MRI machines all in one. An all-in-one building is our dream.”
Deppmann echoes similar opinions.
“To get all these scientists and students from across Grounds right next to each other,” Deppmann said. “Now that’s really the ultimate manifestation of collaboration.”
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