Funded Projects

Browse wide-ranging research at the frontiers of neuroscience supported by Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute grants, awards, and training fellowships.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neuroscience:Translate Award
2023
High-Fidelity Artificial Retina for Vision Restoration

This team will use their Neuroscience:Translate award to develop a large-scale bi-directional neural interface that will restore high-fidelity vision to people blinded by retinal degeneration.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neuroscience:Translate Award
2023
New Thrombectomy Device for Endovascular Neurosurgery

This team will use their Neuroscience:Translate award to develop an entirely new class of ischemic stroke treatment device that will lead to improved clot extraction to improve the success of endovascular thrombectomy.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neuroscience:Translate Award
2024
Small molecule ion channel modulator to treat acute episodes of peripheral vertigo

This team is developing a small molecule that targets a voltage-gated ion channel within the inner ear for the symptomatic relief of peripheral vertigo attacks. They will use their Neuroscience:Translate award to further develop this molecule to restore normal function and improve activities of daily living for patients experiencing peripheral vertigo.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neuroscience:Translate Award
2024
Creating a pharmacologic stroke recovery therapy

This team has identified a promising protein-based therapeutic to improve stroke recovery.  The team will use the Neuroscience:Translate award to identify key components of this protein to maximize its therapeutic potential for stroke treatments.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neuroscience:Translate Award
2024
Clinical translation of a new PET radiotracer for mapping innate immune activation in multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases

This team recently identified a selective biomarker of inflammation-promoting immune cells in the central nervous system. They will use their Neuroscience:Translate award to develop non-invasive molecular imaging strategies to distinguish between harmful (pro-inflammatory) and helpful (anti-inflammatory) immune cells in patients with Multiple sclerosis (MS).

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neuroscience:Translate Award
2024
Assessing the feasibility of an autologous cell/gel therapy for spinal cord injury

This team has developed a new therapy for patients with spinal cord injury, involving injection into the spinal cord of patient-derived stem cells within an engineered protective gel. They will use their Neuroscience:Translate award to further test and develop this novel therapy in preparation for first-in-human clinical trials. 

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neuroscience:Translate Award
2024
Targeting mitochondria in glioblastoma

This team recently discovered that a small molecule they had originally developed to treat Parkinson’s disease can also reduce the volume of glioblastoma tumors – the most common form of aggressive brain tumor — by targeting the mitochondrial protein Miro1. They will use their Neuroscience:Translate award to study the mechanisms of the compound’s anti-tumor action and prepare to apply for investigational-new-drug status to move this discovery toward the clinic.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Big Ideas in Neuroscience Award
2017
NeuroChoice Initiative (Phase 2)
We propose to connect diverse faculty to deepen interdisciplinary understanding of the neural mechanisms supporting addictive choice by combining conceptual, experimental, and clinical approaches that bridge historically disparate fields of inquiry.
Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Big Ideas in Neuroscience Award
2017
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.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Big Ideas in Neuroscience Award
2017
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.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Big Ideas in Neuroscience Award
2015
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.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Big Ideas in Neuroscience Award
2015
Stroke Collaborative Action Network

Breaches barriers in our understanding of stroke to develop therapies and improve stroke recovery.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Big Ideas in Neuroscience Award
2015
NeuroChoice: Optimizing Choice - from neuroscience to public policy
This proposal brings together faculty from diverse disciplines to deepen our understanding of the neural mechanisms supporting choice, and extend this knowledge to optimize choices related to addiction and investment. This consilience will require new conceptual and experimental tools designed to bridge historically distant fields of inquiry. Our team aims to transform the scientific understanding of choice, and to translate relevant knowledge to promote more optimal decision-making.
Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Big Ideas in Neuroscience Award
2018
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.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Big Ideas in Neuroscience Award
2018
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.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Big Ideas in Neuroscience Award
2018
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.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Big Ideas in Neuroscience Award
2018
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.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neuroscience:Translate Award
2019
Multi-modal deep learning for automated seizure localization

Developing an automated seizure detection and localization system based on deep neural networks, EEG data, and real-time video with the goal to dramatically increase neurologist diagnostic capabilities while improving quality of care.