Page 4 - ESTABLISHING THE INSTITUTE FOR BRAIN AND NEURAL SCIENCES

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Join us on our exploration of the human brain.
We invite you to partner with us on this amazing journey.
Is there any mystery more challenging than
the brain—or more marvelous? Billions of nerve cells connect to form the most complex computer in the world, one that governs every aspect of our lives. Demystifying some aspect of this complexity stands as a fundamental goal for scientists of all sorts. Such diverse, shared passion—from molecular biology to systems biology, from cellular science to computer science, from biophysics to biochemistry— launched the uniquely interdisciplinary feld
of neuroscience we know today.
We now have imaging techniques for seeing, stimulating, and recording brain activity with extraordinary precision, much of which is conducted at the Azrieli National Institute
for Human Brain Imaging and Research on campus. In the last two decades, an explosion of knowledge in genomics and immunology has led to new ways to think about diseases like Alzheimer’s and disorders like autism, and the brain has been shown to be far more malleable than we ever thought possible.
But diversity can breed silos, and so it is incumbent upon us to come together to share ideas and fnd our common language if we are to make serious progress. Today, incredible diversity exists across neuroscience research—possibly more diverse than any other biological feld—and so many of domains of exploration are robust and ready for the next stage: integration.
The key to solving the brain’s mysteries in 2020 and beyond is to harmonize across domains
of cognition and emotion and across levels
of analysis, from genes, molecules, and cells,
to neural networks and behaviors—that is, to cultivate an environment in which diverse experts interact on a regular basis and learn to speak each other’s languages.
The Weizmann Institute of Science both possesses this great diversity within neuroscience—with more than 40 internationally renowned groups actively investigating topics of relevance to
the feld—and possesses just the right mix of a culture of collaboration and manageable size to take brain science into the new era. Our scientifc community is close-knit, agile, and fexible, and it is home to the brightest young stars and leading minds in multiple felds—all of whom are ready to direct their energies to a community that shares a common purpose.