The Weill Neurohub leads breakthroughs in neuroscience by strengthening collaborative relationships among world-class researchers and clinicians.

Program Areas:

The Weill Neurohub Pillars Program

This program unites researchers around four major pillars to support the creation and application of next generation tools to speed innovation: neuroimaging, neuroengineering, neurogenomics, neuromolecular therapeutics, and neurocomputation/data analytics. These pillars are strongly positioned to deliver high-impact results, including the development of next-generation devices and therapies positioned for rapid translation to the clinics in the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Neurosciences Building, which is part of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences.

The first six projects awarded in the Pillars Program are:

Engineering and application of “NextGen 7T” MRI scanner

The NextGen 7T project aims to create the world’s most powerful magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. It will allow investigators to see brain structures as small as 200 to 300 microns – one-quarter of the size of a grain of sand – which is about 60 times sharper than a standard hospital MRI. This ultra-high resolution will enable the discovery of previously unknown brain circuits and functions, providing investigators with new insights into brain diseases and how to treat them. Weill Neurohub funding will complete the construction of the scanner and the facility to operate it and support research to evaluate the first use cases.

Project leaders: David Feinberg, MD, PhD (UCB); Thomas Grabowski, MD (UW); Chunlei Liu, PhD (UCB); Pratik Mukherjee, MD, PhD (UCSF)

Identification of novel treatments for Alzheimer’s and related disorders

This project aims to speed progress toward safe and effective therapies for Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (ADRD). Historically, progress has been limited by two barriers: an incomplete understanding of the cellular processes that lead to ADRD and a lack of robust cellular models for identifying and evaluating new therapeutic targets. Weill Neurohub support will fund the development of cross-disciplinary strategies and tools to overcome these barriers, including biobanks for collecting brain tissue and cells and platforms for investigating new therapies.

Project leaders: Jennifer Doudna, PhD (UCB); Lea Grinberg, MD, PhD (UCSF); Suman Jayadev, MD (UW); C. Dirk Keene, MD, PhD (UW); Michael Rape, PhD (UCB); William Seeley, MD (UCSF); Jessica Young, PhD (UW)

Creation of a Weill Neurohub collaborative platform for data and analytics

This project will provide a platform for data-science innovation and training at the Weill Neurohub. In launching the platform, Weill Neurohub funding will support the development of new algorithms, software, and shared infrastructure for processing the vast amounts of data currently being generated in neuroscience. The funding will also support outreach and training in advanced computational science for students, fellows, and faculty members from diverse disciplines across the Weill Neurohub community.

Project leaders: Kristofer Bouchard, PhD (UCB, LBNL); Bing Brunton, PhD (UW); Thomas Grabowski, MD (UW); Roland Henry, PhD (UCSF); Geoffrey Manley, MD, PhD (UCSF); Shankar Sundaram, PhD (LLNL); Bin Yu, PhD (UCB)

Advancement of electrical stimulation for treating neurological and psychiatric illness

Electrical stimulation of the brain is a promising technique for treating a wide range of neuropsychiatric disorders, including stroke; chronic pain; and severe, intractable depression and anxiety. This project aims to improve the efficacy of next-generation neurostimulation devices, which could decode a patient’s brain activity and use that information to provide personalized, targeted stimulation for relieving symptoms. Weill Neurohub funding will support research and engineering to improve and test the effectiveness of these devices.

Project leaders: Edward F. Chang, MD (UCSF); Karunesh Ganguly, MD, PhD (UCSF); Michel Maharbiz, PhD (UCB); Chet Moritz, PhD (UW); Rikky Muller, PhD (UCB); Jeffrey G. Ojemann, MD (UW); Amy Orsborn, PhD (UW); Azadeh Yazdan-Shahmorad, PhD (UW)

Construction of next-generation microscopes for live brain imaging

This project aims to build three state-of-the-art microscopes that will allow investigators to observe brain cells in unprecedented detail. Weill Neurohub funding will support the design and engineering of the microscopes’ hardware as well as the computational infrastructure for data analysis and sharing. The completed microscopes will be available to all Weill Neurohub investigators, thereby expanding research opportunities and collaborations.

Project leaders: Graeme Davis, PhD (UCSF), Adrienne Fairhall, PhD (UW), Na Ji, PhD (UCB), Saul Kato, PhD (UCSF), Laura Waller, PhD (UCB)

DeepNeuro: synthetic and augmented MRI for a shared neuroimaging infrastructure across Neurohub

This project aims to develop shared processes for neuroimaging acquisition and interpretation that will allow the Weill Neurohub to collect, combine and compare advanced neuroimaging data for patients with brain disorders across conditions, across silos, and across institutions. These neuroimaging measures represent one of the foundations of the DeepNeuro Initiative – our ambitious endeavor to phenotype over 10,000 patients at UCSF and the University of Washington and collect harmonized datasets that include common patient-reported, clinical, biosample and MRI data elements. These rich data will enable fertile collaborations and new lines of enquiry throughout the Weill Neurohub.

Project leaders: Riley Bove, MD MMSc (UCSF); Thomas Grabowski, MD (UW); Reza Abbasi Asl, PhD (UCSF); David Feinberg, PhD (UCB); Roland Henry, PhD (UCSF); Andrew Josephson, MD (UCSF); Peder Larson, PhD (UCSF); Thabele Leslie-Mazwi, MD (UW); Chunlei Liu, PhD (UCB); Pratik Mukherjee, MD PhD (UCSF); Swati Rane, PhD (UW); Annette Wundes, MD (UW)

The Weill Neurohub Investigators Program

This program has two main goals:

Foster new cross-campus, interdisciplinary teams of roughly five to eight researchers who will explore, create, and test bold new concepts and technologies. Modeled on the success of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, funding for top faculty supports their participation in new multi-year explorations of novel projects with transformational potential.
Help recruit talented faculty by supporting start-up costs for laboratories and other needs for top talent acquisition across campuses.

The current projects awarded in the Investigators Program are:

Holographic all-optical electrophysiology: A new platform for ultra-fast bidirectional brain machine interfaces

This project aims to establish a radical new form of brain imaging capable of simultaneously measuring and manipulating brain activity with unprecedented speed, precision, and scale.

Project leaders: Hillel Adesnik PhD (UCB); Rikky Muller, PhD (UCB); Laura Waller, PhD (UCB); Massimo Scanziani, PhD (UCSF); Michael Bruchas, PhD (UW)

Mapping human-specific constraint and characterizing cell type specificity in recently duplicated genes during neurodevelopment

This project will identify duplicate genes with human-specific functions by analyzing their patterns of sequence variation in humans and chimpanzees, and we will identify the paralogs expressed in specific cell types during neural development by establishing a stem cell-derived neuron model system with fully resolved maternal and paternal genomes.

Project leaders: Alex Pollen PhD (UCSF); Peter Sudmant, PhD (UCB); Evan Eichler, PhD (UW)

The Weill Neurohub Next Great Ideas Program

This program calls for research proposals from interdisciplinary teams of two or more researchers representing inter-campus partnerships. The awards rapidly fund high-risk, high-reward research projects. In so doing, the program inspires creative, collaborative thinking and accelerate discovery.

The current proposals awarded in the Next Great Ideas Program are:

Molecular recording of neuronal Activity

It remains challenging to identify the active neurons that are associated with different stimuli and behaviors, this project addresses this challenge with a neuroscience tool that lays down persistent molecular marks in response to momentary neuronal activity.

Project leaders: Nicholas Ingolia, PhD (UCB); Helen Bateup, PhD (UCB); Yuh Nung Jan, PhD (UCSF)

Test delivery and efficacy of CRISPR gene therapies for C9orf72 FTD/ALS

This project will develop a non-invasive functional readouts of muscle contraction elicited in response to motor neuron activation, to monitor NMJ health over time and also to test whether CRISPR gene editing can cure diseased, mature neurons.

Project leaders: Claire Clelland, PhD (UCSF); Alec Smith, PhD (UW)

Validating the Nurr1-targeting Therapeutics for the Treatment of PD and ALS-FTD

This project seeks to overcome the absence of disease-specific model systems, by evaluating the effect of drugs targeting Nurr1on gene transcription programs linked to neurodegeneration.

Project leaders: Pamela England, PhD (UCSF); Erik Ullian, PhD (UCSF); Iain Clark, PhD (UCB)

A novel method of non-invasive brain stimulation to enhance motor function in chronic stroke patients

The goal of this project is to test and validate a novel first-in-class non-invasive approachi to optimize stimulation and to elucidate mechanisms of action.

Project leaders: Richard Ivry, PhD (UCB); Karunesh Ganguly, PhD (UCSF)

Optical control of inhibitory synapses on the axon initial segment for understanding their role in brain function in health and disease

The goal of this project is to generate and validate tools that enable photo control of GABAergic synapses on the axon initial segment (AIS), the critical regionof a neuron where action potentials are initiated, and to Use light-sensitive GABAA receptors to explore the role of AIS synapses in cortical circuitry, including their ability to coordinate network oscillations that are altered in schizophrenia.

Project leaders: Richard Kramer, PhD (UCB); Kevin Bender, PhD (UCSF)

High density electrode recording and contrast-enhanced ultrasound as novel biomarkers for human spinal cord injury

By combining ultrasound andhigh-densityepidural recording in human SCI patientssynergistically, we propose to develop novel biomarkersfor predicting SCI patients with the capacity to recover. These may be anatomically dyscomplete patients, i.e. patients who have limited to no distal motor function, but residual descending corticospinal tract fibers with capacityfor neuroplasticity.

Project leaders:Rajiv Saigal PhD (UCSF); Christoph Hofstetter, PhD (UW)

Function of type I interferon-responsive microglia in ischemic injury

The aims of this project are to determine the requirement of microglial IFN-I signaling for axonal protection in white matter following ischemic brain injury, and the role of IFN-I responsive microglia in eliminating damaged neurons and oligodendrocytes during ischemic brain injury.

Project leaders: Ashley McDonough, PhD (UW); Jonathan Weinstein, PhD (UW); Anna Molofsky, PhD (UCSF)

The Weill Neurohub Fellows Program

This program trains the next generation of innovators and help launch their careers as independent researchers by supporting graduate students, post-docs, and post-residency MDs aspiring to be clinician-scientists. This funding provides opportunities for Weill Neurohub Fellows to spend time on multiple campuses.

Please direct inquiries regarding Weill Neurohub programs and support to
Heather Dawes, Weill Neurohub Exec. Director