By Peter Alexander and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News
A human brain research program that could point to new strategies for dealing with illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy and autism was expected to be unveiled by the White House Tuesday.
President Barack Obama was due to launch the BRAIN Initiative, which a White House official touted as a "bold, new? move ?designed to recognize our understanding of the human brain."
It follows a pledge Obama made in his State of the Union address, when he spoke of creating jobs through research and development.
"If we want to make the best products, we also have to invest in the best ideas,? he said in this address last month. ?Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy.?
The project will be jump-started with a $100 million investment in 2014, the White House said, although the scientists who inspired the idea say the focus is not so much raising money as harnessing new technologies to uncover the secrets of neural function less expensively and more completely.
It will boost the development of technology that will allow researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought.
Ultimately, that could help find a way to treat or prevent brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, autism and schizophrenia.
The $100 million funding will come from the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation, the White House said.
Related:
How researchers shaped the White House's brain-mapping initiative
This story was originally published on Tue Apr 2, 2013 6:00 AM EDT
nitrous oxide rihanna thug life tattoo arizona governor patrick witt leprosy tampa bay buccaneers birdman
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.