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Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders
Board on Health Sciences Policy
From Molecules to Mind:
Challenges for the 21st Century
June 25, 2008
Lecture Room
The National Academy of Sciences Building
2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20418
Background:
The unifying theme for this workshop is the need to expand the understanding of how perception, cognition, and action arise in the human brain from interactions between molecules, chemicals, neurons, and circuits, the brain’s fundamental building blocks. This concept is pertinent to every level of brain organization, from understanding how molecules become assembled into neurons to how neurons get assembled into neuronal circuits, how those circuits develop unique properties and capabilities, and finally how dysfunction at any of these levels may lead to disorders of the brain.
Objectives:
- Illuminate the progress and successes made by the neuroscience community and highlight the challenges still facing the field.
- Identify the guiding principles, fundamental scientific questions, and goals that will inspire the scientific and public communities to support and engage this grand challenge.
- Identify the infrastructure and resource requirements that will be necessary to advance and accelerate discovery, including:
- What will be the technology needs?
- Which disciplines will need to be engaged and what will be their training requirements?
- What partnerships need to be forged?
*** Please note a continental breakfast will be available at 8:00 a.m.
9:00 a.m. Welcome, Introductions, and Workshop Objectives
Alan Leshner, Forum Chair
Executive Publisher
Science Magazine
Chief Executive Officer
American Association for the Advancement of Science
9:15 a.m. Overview and Objectives of the IOM Neuroscience Forum’s Grand Challenges Initiative
Kathie Olsen
Deputy Director
National Science Foundation
9:30 a.m. From Molecules to Mind: Opportunities and Challenges
Colin Blakemore
Chief Executive Officer, former
British Medical Research Council
Professor
Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics
Oxford University
Session I: Overview of Current Knowledge: Examining the Current Theories of How the Nervous System is Organized from Molecules to Mind
Session Objective: Highlight and discuss the current understanding, hypotheses, and theories for how the nervous system is organized, and how molecular and cellular organization impacts the function of the brain. Based on the current understanding, what are the future needs for the neuroscience community?
9:50 a.m. Introduction to the Session: Session Objectives
Story Landis, Session Chair
Director
National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke
10:00 a.m. Principles of Neuronal Coding
William Bialek
John Archibald Wheeler/Battelle Professor in Physics
Joseph Henry Laboratories of Physics, and the
Lewis–Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics
Princeton University
10:15 a.m. Circuits: Between Systems and Cellular Processes
Eve Marder
Professor of Neuroscience
Department of Biology and Volen Center
Brandeis University
10:30 a.m. BREAK
10:45 a.m. Cognitive Disorders: molecules, cells, and circuits
Alcino Silva
Director
Behavioral Testing Core
Professor Psychology
Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity, Neurobiology
UCLA School of Medicine
11:00 a.m. Research and Neuroethics
Jonathan Moreno
David and Lyn Silfen University Professor
Center for Bioethics
University of Pennsylvania Health System
11:15 a.m. Discussion
Story Landis, Session Chair
Director
National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Noon LUNCH
Session II: Exploring the Grand Challenges
Session Objective: Highlight and discuss cross-cutting themes and knowledge gaps, and how these may help to identify a set of guiding principles and fundamental scientific questions.
- What the field knows it does not know
- What it doesn’t know it doesn’t know, and
- What it thinks it knows but doesn’t.
1:00 p.m. Introduction to the Session: Session Objectives
Steven Hyman, Session Chair
Provost
Harvard University
1:15 p.m. Panel Discussion 1: What are the current challenges and opportunities?
Machine Learning, and its Implications on Understanding the Brain
Tom Mitchell
Fredkin Professor of AI and Machine Learning
Chair
Machine Learning Department
School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
Neurophysiologic and Modeling Strategies to Understand the Brain
Theodore Berger
David Packard Professor of Engineering, Professor of Biomedical
Engineering and Neurobiology
Director
Center for Neural Engineering
University of Southern California
Computational Neuroscience: What lies ahead?
Read Montague
Professor
Department of Neuroscience
Human Neuroimaging Lab
Baylor College of Medicine
2:00 p.m. Panel Discussion 2: What are the current challenges and opportunities?
Understanding Neuronal Connections using Imaging Strategies
Jeff Lichtman
Professor
Molecular and Cellular Biology
Harvard University
Multimodal Neuroimaging of Brain Activity and Connectivity
Bin He
Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Neuroscience
Interim Director, Center for Neuroengineering
University of Minnesota
Molecular Neurobiology and Genetics of Circadian Clocks
Joseph S. Takahashi
Investigator
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Walter and Mary E. Glass Prof. in the Life Sciences
Department of Neurobiology and Physiology
Northwestern University
Pruning the Brain through Changes in Activity
Michael Greenberg
Director
Division of Neuroscience
Children's Hospital Boston
Harvard Medical School
3:00 p.m. BREAK
3:15 p.m. Panel Discussion 3: What are the current challenges and opportunities?
Neurochemistry and the Brain
Joseph Coyle
Eben S. Draper Professor of Psychiatry and of Neuroscience
Harvard Medical School
The Aging Mind: Structural and Neurochemical Changes
Steven T. DeKosky
Professor and Chair
Department of Neurology
University of Pittsburgh
Genes to Drugs
Kári Stefánsson
President
Chief Executive Officer
deCODE genetics
Session IIi: Discussion: Next Steps-Energizing the Community
Session Objective: What “grand challenges” were identified during the workshop that will inspire the scientific and public communities to support and engage this initiative? Identify and discuss current and future technological and resource needs that will be necessary to overcome associated challenges and advance and accelerate discovery. How can we, and who should, champion the innovation and ideas discussed during the workshop?
4:15 p.m. Panel Discussion with Key Stakeholders: Opportunities, Priorities, and Resource
Requirements Identified During the Workshop:
Timothy Coetzee
Vice President, Discovery Partnerships
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
Eve Marder
Professor of Neuroscience
Department of Biology and Volen Center
Brandeis University
Steven Hyman
Provost
Harvard University
Tom Insel
Director
National Institute on Mental Health
Alan Leshner
Executive Publisher
Science Magazine
Chief Executive Officer
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Nora Volkow
Director
National Institute on Drug Abuse
5:00 p.m. Closing Remarks
Kathie Olsen
Deputy Director
National Science Foundation
5:15 p.m. ADJOURN
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