The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has begun its first round of investments totaling $46 million for the 2014 fiscal year to support the Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative.
The BRAIN initiative was launched by President Obama in 2013 in an effort to give researchers better insight into brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury. More than $110 million has been committed to the program by four federal agencies: the NIH, the National Science Foundation, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Under the program, more than 100 researchers in 15 states and several countries will develop new technologies for understanding neural circuit function and capturing dynamic views of the brain in action. NIH hopes the project will help develop new treatments for diseases that are estimated to affect up to 1 billion people worldwide.
