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In the 20 th century, scientists discovered a great deal about the brain. They discovered what happens to individual neurons when memories are made. They created powerful tools to image brain function.
But while they made great strides toward understanding molecules, cells and brain circuitry, scientists continue to unearth how these circuits come together in systems to record memories, illuminate sight and produce language. A better understanding of neurons and their circuits is needed before diseases of the brain can be treated more effectively, and ultimately cured.
Thanks to the generosity of Dawn Greene and the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, Columbia's team of neuroscientists can continue pushing the frontiers of the discipline forward in a new state-of-the-art facility, intended to serve as the headquarters for the University's burgeoning initiatives in mind, brain and behavioral studies.
The new science center will be located in Manhattanville in West Harlem, in between the Medical Center and Morningside Heights campuses -- a location that lends itself to collaboration across the University's various disciplines and departments, and that should help to attract the participation of internationally renowned scientists. (Click for complete details about the new science center. )
For leading Columbia neuroscientists Richard Axel, Thomas Jessell and Eric Kandel, along with departing dean of the Medical School Gerald D. Fischbach, also a neuroscientist, the creation of a new facility is a dream come true. This group of scientists has long nourished the vision of creating an institute to foster innovative interactions between experts in the neurosciences and other complementary basic and clinical disciplines -- including chemistry, physics, engineering and computational sciences, as well as critical clinical programs such as neurology, psychiatry and endocrinology.
The Columbia team also has had the prescience to envision a time when neuroscience will reach beyond the biomedical community to include social science disciplines like psychology, anthropology and economics, and even the humanities.
With the arrival of Lee C. Bollinger as Columbia's president, these ambitious plans are finally coming to fruition. Early in his tenure, Bollinger saw the promise of taking a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of brain circuitry, perceiving that it could lead, for instance, to a clearer understanding of neurogenerative disorders, mental illnesses and traumatic brain lesions. He also saw the potential for the brain sciences one day to overlap with the humanities and the social sciences.
In 2004, as part of Columbia's 250th anniversary celebrations, Bollinger formally launched a University-wide initiative in mind, brain and behavior at a major symposium on this topic. Since then, he has earmarked funds to support research on neurocircuitry and has begun the process of creating the University's first department of neurosciences.
But while Columbia has launched a number of important initiatives in the past few years -- and even weeks, with the announcement of the new science center -- it already had strong fundamentals in brain science research, extending all the way back to 1974, when the University recruited Eric Kandel to found and direct the Division of Neurobiology and Behavior. (Kandel subsequently went on to win a Nobel Prize for his path-breaking research in this field.)
At Columbia as elsewhere, a pivotal moment in the development of the discipline occurred in the early 1970s, when many neuroscientists came to perceive the effectiveness of taking an integrated approach to the study of the brain by combining molecular and system-based analyses of neural circuits.
Under Kandel's leadership, Columbia became one of the first universities to assemble, in neighboring laboratories, a team of investigators from various disciplines to further research on the neurobiology of behavior at the cellular, molecular and systems levels, with an emphasis on combining empirical and theoretical approaches in pursuit of a common goal.
In 1980 the division was enlarged to form the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior , which has since been growing in size and scope.
At present, the center is composed of 50 faculty members, with appointments in 10 different departments across the University and Medical Center campuses. The clinical and basic faculty, which now includes several world-class neurobiologists, together generate more research funding than any other group of neuroscientists in the country. Faculty members have used these funds to establish pioneering centers, institutes and programs in a wide range of neurological disease areas.
One measure of the degree to which neurobiology has flourished at Columbia is the University's recent decision to set up the Center for Neuroscience Initiatives , an organizing arm for current efforts and for developing and implementing new programs that will accelerate the translation of fundamental neuroscience discoveries into new therapies for neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Another measure is the number of cutting-edge contributions Columbia researchers have made to the field. In addition to Eric Kandel and Richard Axel's Nobel Prize-wining studies on memory and the olfactory system respectively, Thomas Jessell's research has revealed the molecules that specify the identity of nerve cells and that drive the assembly of precise neural networks within the developing nervous system.
For more information on these and other recent findings, go to www.columbiacni.org. |
