Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute

Unlocking the mysteries of brain and behavior

Learn about our three areas of research emphasis

Colorful brain image, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, NeuroDiscovery

MRI brain scans, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, NeuroHealth

Circuitboard, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, NeuroEngineering

NeuroEngineering

Institute Announcements

HIRING:

Director of Scientific Portfolio, Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience

APPLY:

2026 SIGFs (graduate fellowships) affiliated with Wu Tsai Neuro

Deadline: Feb 11, 2026

APPLY:

Become a mentor for our summer NeURO-CC community college students.

Deadline: Feb 15, 2026

SAVE THE DATE:

Mar 4, 2026: MBCT Symposium, "Linking timescales of behavior and neural activity through recurrent computation"

Upcoming Events

More Events

12 Feb 12pm to 1pm PST

Neurosciences Seminar: Katalin Gothard - Neural mechanism linking interoception to decision-making

19 Feb 12pm to 1pm PST

Neurosciences Seminar: Staci Bilbo - Lung-brain signaling in mental health outcomes

23 Feb 4pm to 5:15pm PST

MBCT Seminar: Eugene Izhikevich - Spiking Manifesto [Updated Speaker]

26 Feb 12pm to 1pm PST

Neurosciences Seminar: Mark Andermann - Tracking offline cortical reactivations and biochemical signaling in the awake brain

Featured News

Four images with blobs of red, blue, and some green representing accumulating proteins in brain cells.

Research news |

Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience

Aging brains pile up damaged proteins

Proteins that start life inside neurons build up faster in old age and spread to other brain cells—a potential source of neurological mischief

Ali Ghoochani examines samples in the lab.

Research news |

Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience

A new atlas could help guide researchers studying neurological disease

The database of lysosomal proteins is already helping researchers study how brain cells’ waste and recycling systems work—or don’t—in Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases

Director's messages |

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute

Happy New Year from Vincent V.C. Woo Director Kang Shen

Vincent V.C. Woo Director Kang Shen welcomes the Wu Tsai Neuro community to 2026, reflects on our recent milestones, and wishes the community a happy and productive new year

A stylized gradient line-art lightbulb, drawn with swirling magenta-to-teal strokes, centered inside a light gray circular background.

Wu Tsai Neuro News |

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute

Big Ideas in Neuroscience tackle brain science of everyday life and more

From studying post-viral fatigue to engineering transparent mouse brains, round three of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute’s Big Ideas grants will push the bounds of what’s possible

Podcast: From Our Neurons to Yours

From Our Neurons to Yours Wu Tsai Neuro Podcast

Podcast episodes |

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute

Is Alzheimer's an energy crisis in the brain?

We speak with neurologist Katrin Andreasson about new links between inflammation, metabolism and new hopes for treating neurodegeneration

From Our Neurons to Yours Wu Tsai Neuro Podcast

Podcast episodes |

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute

"The Emergent Mind: How intelligence arises in people and machines"

We speak with cognitive scientist and MBCT director Jay McClelland about his new book and the relationship between the neural networks powering our brains and our AI systems

From Our Neurons to Yours Wu Tsai Neuro Podcast

Podcast episodes |

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute

Could brain implants read our thoughts? (Not yet)

Join us as we talk with Erin Kunz about building brain-computer interfaces to restore speech to people with paralysis, and recent research testing whether this technology could accidentally read out private thoughts

From Our Neurons to Yours Wu Tsai Neuro Podcast

Podcast episodes |

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute

NeuroForecasting: how brain activity can predict stock prices or viral videos

Join us as we talk with Brian Knutson, a professor of psychology in Stanford's School of Humanities and Sciences about the frontiers of neuroeconomics, bridging psychology, economics, and neuroscience