Knight Initiative News

By studying why some kids struggle to read, cognitive neuroscientist Jason Yeatman hopes to make education work better for all students and deepen science’s understanding of the brain.

Exploring the electrical connections between cancer and brain cells, Wu Tsai Neuro affiliate Michelle Monje is bringing hope to children with brain tumors.

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.

Stanford neurobiologist Carla Shatz, famous for discovering how neural connections develop early in life, is using that knowledge to work on the problem of how they can later deteriorate from Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists in the lab of chemical engineer Monther Abu-Remaileh are uncovering the cellular functions that go awry in degenerative brain disorders and identifying therapies that could treat them.

Stanford bioengineer Stanley Qi is developing advanced gene-editing tools to treat life-threatening diseases and slow the onset of neurological aging.

Wu Tsai Neuro faculty scholar Laura Gwilliams is unlocking how the brain turns sound into meaning.
 

Molecular biologist Luis de Lecea is mapping the brain circuits that control sleep so we can manipulate them for a better night’s rest.

Favour Nerrise, NeuroTech trainee and NeURO-CC mentor, is competing in Stanford’s inaugural 3-Minute Thesis competition on April 17 presenting research that uses at–home tech and artificial intelligence to spot brain disease.

Wu Tsai Neuro affiliate Lauren O’Connell explores the fundamental questions that underlie human relationships

Young adults crave closeness, says Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki, but often misjudge how much their peers want that, too. His research found strategies that can help nudge people to take a chance on one another.

In a recent study of a technique to help kids with ADHD strengthen their working memory, about half of participants showed improvements in their symptoms. The concept also offers promise for treating other neuropsychiatric conditions.

In the lab of Lauren O’Connell, associate professor of biology, researchers look to amphibian species to learn how animals evolve in response to changing environments.

Stanford Medicine spoke with neurologist Helen Bronte-Stewart, who conducted research that led to the development of a technology recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The 1970s papers from Goldberg and Wurtz made ambitious mechanistic studies of higher brain functions seem feasible.

Associate professor Jason Yeatman discusses the adoption of the Stanford-developed Rapid Online Assessment of Reading (ROAR) as a state-approved dyslexia screening tool in California.

Research supported by a Knight Initiative Catalyst Grant explores whether targeting pathways related to the brain’s “chill-out” system could restore youthful resilience and improve cognitive function.

How early cognitive research funded by the NSF paved the way for today’s AI breakthroughs—and how AI is now inspiring new understandings of the human mind.

Laura Gwilliams, a Wu Tsai Neuro faculty scholar, and Brian Hie are the inaugural faculty of Stanford Data Science. Their work spans multiple disciplines but is united by the desire to explore and leverage large volumes of real-world data.

In his new book, James Doty turns to the latest research findings in neuroscience to explain what manifestation does to the brain and body.