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Neuroscience

The brain is an exceptionally complex organ that we have yet to fully understand. It has more than 80 billion neurons, making over 100 trillion connections to each other, which are responsible for behavior, memory, cognition, and more.

Developing a complete understanding of the brain and its functions requires expertise across many disciplines, from the biological sciences and chemistry to psychology and engineering. Recent advances in biotechnology and data science now allow researchers from different fields to bridge their separate approaches and work toward a comprehensive understanding of the brain.

Yale is taking full advantage of this new capability, integrating its renowned intellectual, academic, clinical, and technical resources into a neuroscience initiative. The result will be a multifaceted and revolutionary understanding of how the brain forms and works—and what underlies neurological disease, age-related neurodegeneration, and behavioral disorders. As the next decade gives rise to a paradigm shift in neuroscience with tremendous benefits to human health and welfare, Yale is determined to lead the way.

How Depression Affects The Brain - Yale Medicine Explains

For many people, depression turns out to be one of the most disabling illnesses that we have in society. Despite the treatments that we have available, many people are not responding that well. It's a disorder that can be very disabling in society. It's also a disorder that has medical consequences. By understand the neurobiology of depression we hope to be able more to find the right treatment for the patient suffering from this disease. The current standard of care for the treatment of depression is based on what we call the monoamine deficiency hypothesis. Essentially, presuming that one of three neurotransmitters in the brain is deficient or underactive. But the reality is, there are more than 100 neurotransmitters in the brain. And billions of connections between neurons. So...

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Yale is a great place for multidisciplinary investigations. We have a launch pad to bring many labs together. I think we’re well positioned to make a difference by approaching neurodegeneration and repair from multiple perspectives, taking genetic and pathologic data, designing therapeutics, and ultimately making a clinical impact.

Stephen Strittmatter, MD, PhD

Synapse concentration has widely been touted as the pathologic feature that correlates best with cognitive performance in Alzheimer’s disease. If we are able to validly measure synapse concentrations in living people, then there are enormous implications for therapeutic trials.

Christopher van Dyck, MD

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