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 first five projects awarded in the Investigators Program are:
Functional dynamics of the non-coding genome in human brain development and disease
This project aims to identify and characterize the genetic switches that control normal brain development and investigate how mutations in these regions contribute to altered gene expression and ultimately confer risk to neurodevelopmental disorders.
Project leaders: Len Pennacchio, PhD (UCB and LBNL); Diane Dickel, PhD (LBNL); Yin Shen, PhD (UCSF); Arnold Kriegstein, MD, PhD (UCSF); David Hawkins, PhD (UW)
Restoring injured neural circuits with brain co-processors
This project will develop a new approach to restoring neurological function based on brain co-processors: devices which use artificial intelligence (AI) and closed-loop neurostimulation to shape neural activity and to bridge injured neural circuits for targeted repair and rehabilitation. The concept of co-processors in rodent and nonhuman primate experiments will be tested, in which particular brain regions are selectively injured, and then a co-processor with an AI algorithm is introduced that improves or replaces lost function.
Project leaders: Rajesh Rao, PhD (UW); Anca Dragan, PhD (UCB); Karunesh Ganguly, MD, PhD (UCSF)
Novel therapies targeting gene regulatory elements for neurodevelopmental disorders
This project develops a novel strategy to rapidly characterize neurodevelopmental disorder-associated gene regulatory elements and identify therapeutic reagents that could be used to restore normal expression levels in these genes. The project also tests whether these reagents ameliorate neuronal and behavioral phenotypes in mouse models of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Project leaders: Helen Bateup, PhD (UCB); Nadav Ahituv, PhD (UCSF); Jay Shendure, MD, PhD (UW); Kevin Bender, PhD (UCSF); Dan Feldman, PhD (UCB); Stephan Sanders, MD, PhD (UCSF)
Automated Optimization of Adaptive DBS for Parkinson’s Disease
This project develops a system integrating brain signal recordings, automatic video analysis, wearable sensors and patient symptom reports that could be deployed to patient’s homes in order to update their adaptive DBS system automatically.
Project leaders: Jack Gallant, PhD (UCB); Simon Little, PhD (UCSF); Jeffrey Herron, PhD (UW)
Generation of novel therapeutic T cell products via CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing for progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy
This project initiates a multi-center collaboration to use CRISPR genome and epigenome engineering to generate novel cellular immunotherapies for a human neurological disease known as progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) caused by JC polyomavirus (JCV) that affects immune compromised patients.
Project leaders: Fyodor Urnov, PhD (UCB); Michael Wilson, MD (UCSF); Philip Greenberg, MD (UW); Alexander Marson, MD, PhD (UCSF)
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 first eight proposals awarded in the Next Great Ideas Program are:
Auditory Memories for Language Processing
This work has the potential to identify both the location of auditory memories used in communication and the nature of the neural code for those memories. This knowledge is essential to understand and ultimately address specific forms of aphasia where word comprehension or retrieval is impeded.
Project leaders: Frederic Theunissen, PhD (UCB); Edward Chang, MD (UCSF); Adrienne Fairhall, PhD (UW)
Identification of mechanical pain transduction machinery in epidermal cells
This project aims to identify the molecular mechanisms by which epidermal cells detect mechanical stimuli and transmit this information to sensory systems.
Project leaders: Diana Bautista, PhD (UCB); Jay Parrish, PhD (UW)
Promoting Brain Resilience Through Homeostatic Neuroprotection
This project will determine the broad therapeutic potential of homeostatic neuroprotection as a means to promote brain resilience, with direct relevance to the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Project leaders: Stephan Lammel, PhD (UCB); Grae Davis, PhD (UCSF); Mark Schnitzer, PhD (Stanford); Jeanne Paz, PhD (UCSF)
Targeting primary human microglia for brain disorders
This project will develop a gene therapy-based approach for treating brain tumors. We will leverage a recombinant viral technology that allows targeted transgene delivery into primary human microglia to promote their phagocytosis of tumor cells.
Project leaders: David Schaffer, PhD (UCB); Tomasz Nowakowski, PhD (UCSF); Susan Chang, MD (UCSF)
All-optical approaches to measure structure and function of neurons in vivo
Retinal degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the developed world. Across the 3 Weill Neurohub institutions, potential approaches to treat blinding eye disease are being pioneered through this work.
Project leaders: Austin Roorda, PhD (UCB); Ramkumar Sabesan, PhD (UW); Rich Kramer, PhD (UCB); Jacque Duncan, MD (UCSF)
Revealing principle patterns, brain areas and local gene regulatory networks in the adult mouse brain by interpretable machine learning
A principal pattern is defined as a dimensionality reduced, spatially coherent segment of the gene expression profile computed from expression of many genes. This project will provide a computational framework based on interpretable machine learning techniques to reveal principal patterns in spatial gene expression profiles.
Project leaders: Bin Yu, PhD (UCB); Reza Abbasi-Asl, PhD (UCSF); Hongkui Zeng, PhD (UW); Bosiljka Tasic, PhD (Allen)
Harnessing Neuronal Heterogeneity in Deep Brain Stimulation
To better understand and develop DBS, this projectwill use cutting-edge imaging and molecular techniques, testing how specific brain cell types are involved in DBS and improving PD motor symptoms.
Project leaders: Alexandra Nelson, MD, PhD (UCSF); Gabe Murphy, PhD (Allen Institute)
Motor recovery after acute stroke
This project brings together numerous disciplines and modalities to identify the functional changes during post-stroke recovery with the goal of developing bedside prognostic tools capable of significantly impacting an individual’s recovery and rehabilitation plan.
Project leaders: Claire Tomlin, PhD (UCB); Cathra Halabi, MD (UCSF); Robert Matthew, 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