Center for Neuroscience

In fall 2007, the President of Boston University established the Center for Neuroscience as a university-wide initiative whose aim is to advance cutting edge interdisciplinary, collaborative research and education on the neural basis of behavior and cognition.  We are pursuing experimental and theoretical-computational approaches that span molecular, cellular, systems, behavioral, and cognitive levels of analysis.  The research aim is to expand our understanding of fundamental mechanisms of brain function and to translate these advances into practical applications including treatment of neurologic and psychiatric disorders and development of new directions in educational practice.

In order to effectively address the complex and challenging problems in contemporary neuroscience, the Center promotes integrative, team-based research that builds on the expertise of individual scientists and is run by an executive committee of leading BU neuroscientists.  The major research mission of the Center will be to foster the development of interdisciplinary projects in rapidly developing, high-risk-high-payoff topical areas of fundamental and translational neuroscience that include a cognitive or behavioral component as a main feature of the research focus.  Each project will be composed as a working group of faculty and students engaged in interdisciplinary collaborations that bridge traditional departmental boundaries and research approaches and may include basic and /or clinical research.  Successful working groups are expected to evolve into vibrant, self-sustaining research collectives whose external funding will be administered through the Center,

This research initiative adds to several ongoing, externally funded research projects in neuroscience at Boston University.  These include numerous individual investigator grants funded by NSF and NIH.  In addition, Boston University is the home of two major externally funded neuroscience centers of excellence, the Center for Memory and Brain, which is funded by a NIMH Silvio O. Conte Neuroscience Research Center award ($9.1M), and the Center for Excellence in Learning, Science, and Technology, which is funded by an NSF Science of Learning Center award ($19.1M).  Please contact us for further information.