Browse wide-ranging research at the frontiers of neuroscience supported by Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute grants, awards, and training fellowships.
Projects
Investigating severe traumatic brain injury using a novel human CSF cell-free mRNA gene panel
This team aims to be the first to study the cellular and molecular impact of traumatic brain injury by studying genetic material in human cerebrospinal fluid. This will help clinicians and researchers ID markers of brain resilience after injury, and ultimately improve treatment for severe TBI.
NeuroChoice Initiative (Phase 2)
Stanford NeuroTechnology Initiative (Phase 2)
Our goal is to develop the next generation of neural interfaces that match the resolution and performance of the biological circuitry. We will focus on two signature efforts to spearhead the necessary advances: high-density wire bundles for electrical recording and stimulation, and analog and digital bi-directional retinal prostheses for restoration of vision.
Stanford Brain Rejuvenation Project (Phase 2)
The Stanford Brain Rejuvenation Project is an initiative by leading aging researchers, neuroscientists, chemists, and engineers to understand the basis of brain aging and rejuvenation and how they relate to neurodegeneration.
Neuro-circuit interventional research consortium for understanding the brain and improving treatment
Combining a detailed understanding of brain circuits with technology that modulates neural activity to develop improved ways of treating mental health conditions.
NeuroVision Initiative
The goal is to forge an inter-disciplinary collaboration between physicists, biologists, chemists, and translational medical scientists by inventing new ways of visualizing the brain, from individual molecules to neuronal circuits to entire brain regions, from a normally functioning neuron to a diseased brain.
The NeuroFab: The hub for new ideas in neuro-engineering
Creating an incubator for next-generation neural interface platforms.
Brain-machine interfaces: Science, engineering, and application
Developing technology to interface with the brain and create intelligent prosthetics.
Stroke Collaborative Action Network
Breaches barriers in our understanding of stroke to develop therapies and improve stroke recovery.
NeuroChoice: Optimizing Choice - from neuroscience to public policy
NeuroPlant Initiative
The NeuroPlant Initiative aims to leverage a botanical armamentarium to manipulate the brain — by building a pipeline to explore chemicals synthesized in plants as potential new treatments for neurological disease and as a window into the chemistry of the brain.
Neurodevelopment Initiative
Investigating how the brain develops from infancy to adulthood across species, focusing on how the interplay between structural development, functional development, experience and affect brain computations and ultimately behavior.
Stanford Brain Organogenesis Program (Phase 1)
Developing brain organoids – three dimensional brain tissues grown in the lab – to study human brain development, evolution and neuropsychiatric disorders.
Neuro-omics Initiative (Phase 1)
Creating new tools to help neuroscientists bridge the study of genes and proteins operating in the brain to the study of brain circuits and systems, which could lead to a deeper understanding of brain function and disease.
Stanford Brain Organogenesis Program (Phase 2)
Developing brain organoids and assembloids – three dimensional brain tissues grown in the lab – to study human brain development, evolution and neuropsychiatric disorders.
Neuro-Omics Initiative (Phase 2)
Creating new tools to help neuroscientists bridge the study of genes and proteins operating in the brain to the study of brain circuits and systems, which could lead to a deeper understanding of brain function and disease.
Predicting and promoting resilient brain aging trajectories
Using new animal models such as the African killifish, this team aims to develop approaches to predict individual brain aging trajectories early in life based on behaviors that can be modulated to promote healthy memory, executive function and processing speed as well as counter dementia.
Resilience to Synaptic Impairments in Neurodegenerative Disorders
This team will explore the idea that neurotoxic protein aggregates seen in neurodegenerative disorders act at the synaptic connections between cells, and that resilience against these disorders may come from natural synapse-supporting factors that could be transformed into new forms of therapy.
Preserving motor engrams in Parkinson's disease: Neural circuit and transcriptomic studies and strategies for resilient motor control
This team aims to better understand how Parkinson's disease attacks the brain's basic motor programs and to spawn novel therapies against the disease using gene-editing technology.
Mitochondrial DNA and Brain Resilience
This team proposes the first comprehensive study of how mitochondrial DNA is related to cognitive function and susceptibility to dementia in a diverse population of over 11,000 adults. The outcomes of this study will provide insight into possible racial disparities in brain health.
Sleep circuits in neurodegenerative disease and aging
This team plans to study whether changes in neurons in the midbrain that regulate sleep, wakefulness, and immunity could contribute to aging and neurodegeneration. If successful, this information could rescue deficits in sleep and restore a normal immune profile.
Defining the Subcellular Biology of Brain Aging and Neurodegeneration
This team plans to map how age-related dysfunction of cellular waste disposal in lysosomes could lead to neurodegenerative diseases, potentially laying the foundation for a map of organelle function in the brain.
Unlocking brain resilience with HDAC inhibition
This team aims to define a network of genes that contribute to stress resistance in neurons and identify how it could be activated to enhance brain resilience and protect against neurodegenerative disease.
Endocannabinoid metabolism as a driver of brain aging
This team aims to discover whether the brain’s endocannabinoid system is dysregulated during aging, triggering inflammation via molecules called prostaglandins. If so, a drug that decouples these systems might restore a youthful brain state and rescue cognitive function.