Spring/Summer 2002
Volume 15, Number 1

Pool the "Neuros," Rout Disease

Used to be that anything "neuro" at medical schools-neurology, neurosurgery, neuroscience-operated a bit like a fiefdom. Boundaries were firm. Joint projects happened, though sometimes as favors one scientist bestowed upon another. But all the science that's bubbled over in this past Decade of the Brain-genomics, stem cells and transgenic mice-has changed that.

"As specialties' basic underpinnings have become clearer, it's obvious that traditional boundaries are artificial," saysJohn Griffin, M.D., head of Hopkins neurology. "Our researchers have crossed them as never before, but they need more formal encouragement."

Neuroscientist Valina Dawson, neurologist Nicholas Maragakis, and neuropathologist Philip Wong check mouse upper-body strength.

  
So Griffin and others have launched the Brain Sciences Initiative (BSI), which not only supports joint efforts but does so under a common goal. The BSI acts like a lens, taking in strong research from many departments University-wide to focus it on defeat of the brain's major diseases. The BSI has singled out Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, ALS and peripheral neuropathies.

To speed things, there'll be greater access to functional MRI and other imaging that unveils brain physiology as never before. The BSI also has a particular goal of advancing techniques to repair and regenerate brain tissue. Attracting funding is a major part of the initiative.

A second arm of BSI, at the Homewood campus, explores the overall workings and integration of the brain, as applied to disease.

Already under way is the new Neurobiology of Disease program, training graduate students in that neurology and neuroscience-bridging specialty.

For information, call 410.955.5103.