Pitt launches Brain Institute, aims to kickstart neuro funding

In the next few years, Pitt neuroscientists hope to discover key features of the nervous system that might rival the accomplishments of past Pitt medical researchers such as Jonas Salk, designer of the polio vaccine.

The University announced in a statement Monday that it plans to create a Brain Institute that “aims to unlock the mysteries of normal and abnormal brain function.” Peter Strick, neurobiology chair who researches movement and cognition, will head the institute.

Alan Sved, chair of the neuroscience department, said the institute aims to advance Pitt’s status and research in the neuroscience field.

“One of the goals of the institute is to enhance the resources and visibility of Pitt neuroscience,” Sved said. “Our goal is to move the field forward with the goal of treating neural and psychiatric issues and problems.”

The institute will comprise five different centers that each focus on a different topic, including treatment technology, neurodegenerative disorders, neurodevelopment and the mapping of circuitry and activity, according to a statement. The NeuroDiscovery Center, the fifth center, will support innovative and interdisciplinary research, which could be less likely to receive funding from grants.

Strick discussed the hope for the opportunities of discovery and innovation through the NeuroDiscovery center.

“I see my job as facilitating the science of others,” Strick said. “The Brain Institute is really about that and creating the opportunity for discovery. We have to create the opportunity for people to make the discovery.”

Strick added that the Brain Institute’s placement within an academic setting will be an additional benefit.

“To encompass all that the brain does, it takes a university,” Strick said. “And I think this is a very special place where we can do that.”

Both basic research, such as the study of the functionality of different neuron populations, and translational research, such as the study of psychiatric diseases, will take place at the Brain Institute.

Linda Rinaman, a Pitt neuroscience professor who studies the effects of stress on neural pathways and behavior, said that while the institute will focus on research rather than undergraduate education, undergraduate students will reap benefits. She has hopes that resources will be allocated to fund undergraduate research fellowships that might culminate in full-time immersive research during summers.

“Based on what has been communicated publicly, I’m optimistic that the new Brain Institute will increase the availability of laboratory research experiences for undergraduate and graduate students, as new faculty are hired and new research initiatives are realized,” Rinaman said in an email.

She added that support of “high-risk, potentially high-payoff” projects at Pitt will hopefully encourage other institutions to do the same. She said the neuroscience field is “extremely broad and multidisciplinary,” and collaborative projects between multiple laboratories achieve success more quickly.

“A stated goal of the Brain Institute is to provide the infrastructure to bring neuroscientists together to work on big ideas, to encourage those scientists to be creative and ambitious,” she said.

Sved, who researches nicotine’s effects on neurobiology and the neural control of cardiovascular function, said the institute’s attractiveness to neuroscientists could subsequently benefit students.

“As more neuroscientists are recruited to campus as part of the Brain Institute, more opportunities for students to work in their labs will follow,” Sved said.

Em Maier contributed to this report.