Brain research gets $100 million boost

Research into brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and traumatic injury got a boost Thursday with a $100 million pledge from a US foundation and seven universities.

The additional funds will add to a $300 million program led by the White House and known as the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, launched by President Barack Obama in April 2013.

Half of the money is coming from the Kavli Foundation, which supports scientific research, and the other half is from institutes of higher learning.

"The majority of the funds will establish three new Kavli neuroscience institutes," the foundation said in a statement.

The centers will be located at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, The Rockefeller University in New York and the University of California, San Francisco.

"These institutes will become part of an international network of seven Kavli Institutes carrying out fundamental research in neuroscience, and a broader network of 20 Kavli Institutes dedicated to astrophysics, nanoscience, neuroscience and theoretical physics," said the statement.

The BRAIN Initiative is also funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and private partners.

The Kavli Foundation pledged $40 million to the program when it first launched, and the latest pledge adds $10 million to that amount.

© 2015 AFP

Citation: Brain research gets $100 million boost (2015, October 1) retrieved 28 March 2024 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-10-brain-boost-million-gift.html
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