Knight Initiative News

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

A recent meeting gathered scientists, ethicists, patient advocates and more to discuss organoid ethics.

Join us as we look back on some of the key studies we covered here at Wu Tsai Neuro and the Knight Initiative in 2025 to give a (very partial) overview of the impact of our community’s research efforts this past year

The 12th annual Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute Symposium explored how our brains and bodies communicate—and what that means for our health and well-being

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

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

Scientists and ethicists including Wu Tsai Neuro affiliates Sergiu Pașca and Hank Greely argued for an international process to address the ethical and social questions raised by organoids.

Developed by Stanford researchers, NeuroString is a hair-thin multichannel biosensor and stimulator with promising potential applications in drug delivery, nerve stimulation, smart fabrics, and more.

Stanford undergrads and local community college students paired with Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute researchers to find new ways to head off strokes, predict Alzheimer's disease, and more.

Wu Tsai Neuro affiliate Guosong Hong and colleagues developed a new technique to observe neuron formation and firing in juvenile mice, potentially enhancing our understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders and enabling new interventions.

In a new study in rats, scientists used ultrasound-activated nanoparticles to deliver ketamine and anesthetics to precise targets in the brain.

In a recent study, scientists successfully decoded not only the words people tried to say but the words they merely imagined saying.

Stanford Medicine scientists have developed a brain-computer interface that “reads” thoughts from speech-impaired patients — but only on their command — potentially restoring rapid communication.

Stanford neuroscientist Sergiu Pasca is pioneering technology to recreate human brain tissue and neural circuits in the lab – giving scientists unprecedented access to human brain development and opening new possibilities for treating disorders from psychiatric disease to chronic pain.

New tools that reveal how neuron-specific waves travel through the brains of mice in real time hold promise for understanding diseases such as epilepsy and Alzheimer’s, and open avenues for advances in neuroscience and AI.

An interdisciplinary team of Wu Tsai Neuro scientists working on balls of human neurons called organoids wanted to scale up their efforts and take on important new questions. The solution was all around them.

Knight Initiative-funded research ran the gamut from chemistry to public health, but one theme brought it all together: Studying what makes the brain resilient will help more people live better lives.

Former Wu Tsai Neuro Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholar Sergey Stavisky helped lead an effort to translate brain signals into speech.

Researchers supported by a Neuroscience:Translate grant from Wu Tsai Neuro have developed a new technology for removing blood clots that is more than twice as effective as current techniques.

In a favorite 2024 episode, we spoke with Jaimie Henderson, a Stanford neurosurgeon leading groundbreaking research in brain-machine interfaces.