Yale is one of three universities selected by the Kavli Foundation of Oxnard, CA, to pursue research on fundamental questions in neuroscience. The ambitious initiative was announced Wednesday at a press briefing in New York City.
The Kavli Institute of Neuroscience at Yale University, endowed through a commitment from the Kavli Foundation, will focus its research efforts on the cerebral cortex, the crowning achievement of brain evolution and the substrate of human cognitive abilities. The Institute will use a multidisciplinary research strategy, ranging from molecular genetics to behavioral studies, to explore the development, cellular organization, and function of this complex structure, which mediates our perception, memory, language, and thought.
To realize these objectives, the Institute will develop and support cutting-edge research projects and organize symposia and other activities. The Institute will occupy specially renovated facilities in the Sterling Hall of Medicine, the heart of the Yale School of Medicine.
Pasko Rakic, the University's Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Neuroscience and Chair of the Department of Neurobiology, is the Director of the Institute. "The cerebral cortex is universally recognized as the instrument of human intelligence. The goal of the Kavli Institute of Neuroscience at Yale is to understand how arrangement of the nerve cells and their synaptic circuits in the cortex embody knowledge (the representation) of the outside world. We will study how molecular changes in these circuits imprint learning of something new and retain what we already know. We will also explore how our genome constructs the microarchitecture of the cerebral cortex which is able to carry out high cognitive functions such as language and thought," said Rakic. "These aims will be accomplished through employing a broad multidisciplinary research strategy with investigators from different disciplines - including some of the finest minds at Yale."
"Yale is extremely fortunate to have this opportunity to move multidisciplinary research on the brain to a higher level of sophistication and insight," said University President Richard Levin. "It is a great tribute to the Kavli Foundation and its commitment to expanding knowledge on some of the most fundamental questions of science."
In addition to Rakic, whose findings on molecular mechanisms of neuronal cell proliferation and migration are central to the prevailing understanding of the brain's development, the Institute's leadership includes investigators who have done pioneering work in diverse neuroscience-related disciplines. Pietro De Camilli, Eugene Higgins Professor of http://info.med.yale.edu/cellbio/Cell Biology, has elucidated the mechanism of neurotransmitter secretion, a key component of synaptic communication; David McCormick, Professor of Neurobiology, is an internationally recognized leader in research on cellular mechanisms of cortical function and on thalamocortical modulation; Fred Sigworth, Professor of Cellular & Molecular Physiology, has made important contributions to research on ion-channel proteins; and Stephen Strittmatter, Vincent Coates Professor of Neurology, has explored the role of proteins in controlling the growth of nerve cells. In all, there are more than 100 neuroscientists at Yale on which the Institute can draw as a resource.
With support from the Kavli Foundation, neuroscience research institutes are also being established at Columbia University and the University of California, San Diego. The new Kavli Institutes will work "at the frontiers of science," said Fred Kavli, Chairman of the Kavli Foundation. "It is especially important to pursue the most far-reaching opportunities and challenges and to seek answers to the most fundamental unanswered questions," he added. Kavli is the founder and former Chairman and CEO of Kavlico Corp., a leading maker of sensors for aeronautics, automotive, and industrial applications.
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