Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 19, 2004|Volume 32, Number 22

Center to foster research on cerebral cortex

Yale is one of three universities that have been selected by the Kavli Foundation of Oxnard, California, to pursue research on fundamental questions in neuroscience.

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 perception, memory, language and thought in humans.

To realize these objectives, the institute will develop and support cutting-edge research projects and organize symposia and other activities. It will occupy specially renovated facilities in the Sterling Hall of Medicine, the heart of the School of Medicine.

Dr. Pasko Rakic, the Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Neuroscience and chair of neurobiology, is the director of the institute.

"The cerebral cortex is universally recognized as the instrument of human intelligence," says Rakic. "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.

"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," he adds.

President Richard C. Levin comments: "Yale is extremely fortunate to have this opportunity to move multidisciplinary research on the brain to a higher level of sophistication and insight. 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. They include Dr. Pietro De Camilli, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Cell Biology, who has elucidated the mechanism of neurotransmitter secretion, a key component of synaptic communication; Dr. David McCormick, professor of neurobiology, who is an internationally recognized leader in research on cellular mechanisms of cortical function and on thalamocortical modulation; Fred Sigworth, professor of cellular and molecular physiology, who has made important contributions to research on ion-channel proteins; and Dr. Stephen Strittmatter, the Vincent Coates Professor of Neurology, who 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 at San Diego. The new Kavli Institutes will work "at the frontiers of science," says Fred Kavli, chair 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 adds. Kavli is the founder and former chair and chief executive officer of Kavlico Corp., a leading maker of sensors for aeronautics, automotive and industrial applications.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Yale scientist on team that discovered new planetoid

Robert Blocker has been reappointed to third term . . .

Center to foster research on cerebral cortex

Bulldogs' Nate Lawrie busy preparing himself for NFL Draft

Political scientist Ian Shapiro named YCIAS director

Zbigniew Brzezinski . . . to present talk on campus

Magic, comic mayhem prevail in re-telling of old tale

'Digital Cops in a Virtual Environment' will explore . . .

Conference to consider 'The Future of Secularism'

Exhibit features works by artist who combined fact and fantasy . . .

NIDA director discusses complicated causes . . . of drug addiction

Castle Lectures to explore materialism in today's culture

English faculty to present staged reading of 'Pentecost'

'Enclave' to explore architectural aspects of ports of commerce

In Focus: Office of Cooperative Research