The BRAIN Initiative

Prof. John Donoghue (Director, Brown Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, USA and Member, National Institute for Health (NIH) BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Working Group) presents an overview of the BRAIN Initiative launched by President Obama in 2013. Backed by several national agencies, the BRAIN Initiative’s mission is to fill major gaps in brain science by investigating how individual cells and complex neural circuits interact in space and time.

About speaker:
Prof. John Donoghue is a U.S. neuroscientist known for his pioneering work in the field of human brain computer interfaces, as well as for research on brain function and plasticity. He is a professor of Neuroscience and Engineering at Brown University and holds adjunct faculty positions at the Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne and the University of Geneva. During more than 30 years at Brown he has served as the Director of the Institute for Brain Science and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience. This year he assumed the role of founding Director of the new Wyss Center for Bio- and Neuroenginnering in Geneva, Switzerland. Donoghue was also a co-founder of an early neurotechnology startup company, Cyberkinetics. He has spoken worldwide, including lectures at the World Economic Forum, the Vatican Pontifical Academy of Science and an Alfred Nobel Symposium. His work has been widely featured in the media, including the New York Times, the Economist, the Financial Times, as well as US and international TV. His BrainGate neurotechnolgy, aiming to restore movement for people with paralysis, was recognized by the First Israel Brain Technology Prize, as well as the German Zülch (zoolk) (2007), the Roche-Nature Medicine (2010), and Schrödinger Prizes (Germany, 2012). Donoghue is a Fellow of several academies including the US Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Science, the American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering (AIMBE), and the Academy of Inventors. He was also a member of the NIH BRAIN Committee for the current US Brain Initiative.