By Alison Singer, Co-Founder and President of ASF
It’s not about autism awareness anymore; it’s about action! And today the Obama Administration took action, unveiling a new, bold scientific effort to examine how the human brain works. Scientists and advocates joined President Obama in the East Room of the White House this morning for a discussion of the project and the official public announcement of the BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies).
The project will involve scientists, federal agencies, and non profit foundations in a concerted effort to advance our knowledge of the brain’s billions of neurons and gain greater insights into diseases like autism, potentially finding therapies for a variety of brain-based disorders. The project, slated to cost $100 million in 2014, will be included in the President’s Fiscal Year 2014 Budget.
NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins introduced the President, calling him “America’s Scientist in Chief”. Speaking for about 15 minutes, the President said:
“As humans, we can identify galaxies light years away, we can study particles smaller than an atom. But we still haven’t unlocked the mystery of the three pounds of matter that sits between our ears. But today, scientists possess the capability to study individual neurons and figure out the main functions of certain areas of the brain. But a human brain contains almost 100 billion neurons making trillions of connections. So as a result, we’re still unable to cure diseases like Alzheimer’s or autism, or fully reverse the effects of a stroke. And the most powerful computer in the world isn’t nearly as intuitive as the one we’re born with. So there is this enormous mystery waiting to be unlocked, and the BRAIN Initiative will change that by giving scientists the tools they need to get a dynamic picture of the brain in action and better understand how we think and how we learn and how we remember. And that knowledge could be, will be, transformative.”
The BRAIN Initiative will accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual cells and complex neural circuits interact at “the speed of thought”. These technologies will open new doors to explore how the brain records, processes, uses, stores and retrieves vast quantities of information and will shed new light on the complex links between brain function and behavior. The initiative ultimately aims to help researchers find new ways to treat, cure and even prevent brain disorders like autism, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and traumatic brain injury.
Earlier this year, in his State of the Union address, President Obama cited brain research as an example of how the government should ‘‘invest in the best ideas” and remarked that “now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race”.
Brain research is a critical component in advancing the autism research agenda and ASF is proud to participate in this new initiative, working together with advocates from many other brain-based diseases and disorders. ASF has invested in brain-based research since its launch in 2009, funding several pre- and postdoctoral grants focused on better understanding brain development, structure and function. In October 2012, with support from the Simons Foundation, ASF launched a new effort to develop a multi-media campaign to increase brain tissue donation to further autism research.
“At this point, we have learned a great deal about the genetics of autism, and have important animal models with which to test genetic hypotheses” said Dr. Gerald Fischbach, Director of the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative. “Now the next step in developing useful therapies, and even possibly preventative measures, depends on understanding more about the human brain itself.”