Interest in neuroscience has risen dramatically in thepast 30 years. Membership of the US Society forNeuroscience has soared from 500 when it was

founded in 1969, to more than 28,000 today. And freshneuroscience initiatives — be they institutes (see‘Unlocking the secrets of autism’, opposite), centres orlooser associations of individuals — have beencropping up all around North America. Most newefforts reflect the growing feeling that better treatmentfor disorders of the nervous system and greaterunderstanding of complex human behaviour willrequire a more integrated and interdisciplinaryapproach to neuroscience research and teaching.

BUILDING BRIDGES

Carla Shatz, chair of the department of neurobiologyat Harvard Medical School in Boston, sees theopportunities and challenges for neuroscience ashaving reached the ‘integrative’ neuroscience level. Sheregards the first 30 years of the field as having beenlargely reductionist. “I think the challenge now is howto put the molecules back into the cells, and the cellsback into the systems, and the systems back into tryingto really understand behaviour and perception,” Shatzsays. In order to accomplish this at Harvard, newconnections are being built between the college andthe medical school — two campuses that are physicallyseparated by the Charles River.

A more integrative approach to neurosciencerequires a technological infrastructure. And oneimportant component of this is imaging, says Shatz.Accordingly, the medical school, in collaboration withBoston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, will open anew Brain Imaging Center this month dedicated solelyto research. The centre will house a 4.7-tesla magnetfor use in magnetic resonance imaging studies in miceand small non-human primates. It will also promoteapproaches, such as the use of confocal and two-photon microscopy, that allow researchers to look atmolecules functioning in vivo.

The centre will serve as one of the core facilities forthe new Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration andRepair. This large, distributed effort was jump-startedrecently after the medical school received a largeanonymous gift, and so far it has pulled together more

than 100 clinicians and researchers.The medical school is also considering whether to

create a specific integrative physiology orneuroscience initiative — perhaps in the form of anew centre, says Shatz. The plans are not formalizedand there is talk of broadening any such initiativebeyond neuroscience, because the need to understandhow systems function goes well beyond those of thebrain, she says. In the meantime, the neurobiologydepartment is expanding and will have four or fivefaculty slots to fill over the next few years.

On the Cambridge side of the river, plans areunder way to establish a Center for SystemsNeuroscience. “The goal of this initiative is to provide an umbrella for the systems neuroscienceresearch that goes on and — ultimately — to providea common laboratory building,” says Markus Meister,a professor in the department of molecular andcellular biology.

Meister says that the formation of the centre doesnot mean there are plans to create a new departmentor to change existing departmental structures. Butreallocation of space will allow individuals frombiology, engineering and the applied sciences, physicsand psychology to work side by side. A new buildingand vivarium are still four or five years away; when

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4 NATUREJOBS | 8 NOVEMBER 2001 | www.naturejobs.com

Carla Shatz: facing thechallenge of reassemblingneuroscience.

Exposed: the behaviour ofnerve cells are comingunder intense scrutiny.

All systems go for neuroscience Multidisciplinary approaches pave the way towards new frontiers in understanding complex human behaviour and intractablediseases. Diane Gershon assesses the US field.

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completed, these will house 10–15 faculty. But Meisteris not waiting for new premises to start recruiting.Some appointments have already been made at thejunior faculty level, and there is an ongoing effort toattract a centre director.

LOOKING NORTH

Neuroscience in general, and systems neuroscience inparticular, has been a strength at Queen’s University inKingston, Ontario. But, until recently, the only formalrecognition of this was a seminar series, saysphysiology professor Douglas Munoz. In January ofthis year, however, the university set up a Centre forNeuroscience Studies, with Munoz as its director, topromote integration of the neurological andpsychiatric professions. Although in its early days, theinitiative has already drawn together in a ‘virtual’centre some 45 investigators dispersed about thecampus and spanning both clinical and basic research.

Initially, the centre will focus on developing a newgraduate-training programme in neuroscience, andestablishing core facilities. It will also be used to drivestrategic recruitments, particularly in the areas ofcomputational neuroscience, molecular neurobiology,cognitive/behavioural neuroscience andclinical/rehabilitation neuroscience.

But, as it is a small university, Munoz acknowledgesthat Queen’s will not become excellent in all areas ofneuroscience and instead must focus on a few.Research clusters will be formed around ‘researchchairs’ — the government programme aimed atrecruiting and retaining top scientists to Canadianuniversities. Munoz, who was one of seven Queen’sprofessors to be awarded a research chair in the firstfunding round, expects that 10 additional faculty willbe recruited over the next couple of years.

Even before the new centre was formed, thesensorimotor systems group at Queen’s, one of thelarger neuroscience groups on campus, was already acohesive group. Munoz, who belongs to this group,says that, as a PhD student, he was in a lab with one

principal investigator, one technician and one othergrad student. “That’s not at all the model I use to runmy lab now,” he says. Now, as one of seven principalinvestigators in the group, he has access to manytechnicians but pays only portions of their salaries.

Assembling large multidisciplinary research teamsto work on a particular neurological problem is all in aday’s work for William Luttge, director of theMcKnight Brain Institute at the University of Floridain Gainesville, which opened new premises in 1998. Ona fairly regular basis, Luttge must deal with 10 or sodeans, 50 department chairs and some 325 faculty — atask that is made somewhat easier by having all theprofessional schools on one campus.

But, as a past chairman and dean himself, he is alsoaware of the importance of diplomacy. The McKnightinstitute, for example, does not dictate how graduateprogrammes should be run. And, even though anindividual may receive all or part of their salary fromthe institute, they still report to a departmental chair.Issues of promotion and tenure are also handled at thedepartmental level. Luttge says that his role — and thatof the institute — is instead to create opportunities,once an area of mutual research interest has beenidentified, and to remove barriers.

“I try very hard, when we are looking atprogrammes, to include as many people as possible, notin an egalitarian sense, but to embolden and empowerthe various departments and colleges,” says Luttge.

Space — or lack of it — is the biggest problem now for Luttge. The institute has plans to build a $100-million Neuro-Clinical Research Center adjacent to Shands at the University of Florida, theuniversity’s teaching hospital, but this is a longer-termaim, he says. ■

Diane Gershon is assistant editor of Nature Medicine, New Technology.

Web linksMIND Institute ➧ mindinstitute.ucdmc.ucdavis.eduInternational meeting for Autism Research ➧ www.imfar.orgMcKnight Brain Institute ➧ www.mbi.ufl.eduCenter for Neuroscience Studies ➧ www.queensu.ca/neurosci

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Pressure from parents whohave children with autism has helped to boost theneuroscience profile at theUniversity of California, Davis.After parents of autisticchildren in the Sacramentoarea demanded that moreresources be devoted tounderstanding and treating the disorder, the MedicalInvestigation ofNeurodevelopmental Disorders(MIND) Institute was launchedin 1998. Besides autism, theinstitute studies otherneurodevelopmental disorders,such as Asperger’s syndrome,cerebral palsy and dyslexia.

Before the universityformed a neuroscience centreabout 10 years ago, “it had apretty meagre community ofneuroscientists,” says DavidAmaral, research director of theMIND Institute. In the late1980s, there were only abouthalf a dozen neuroscientists,compared with 55 campus-wide today.

In September, the universitybroke ground on a new135,000-square-foot buildingcomplex for the MINDInstitute. The buildings areslated for completion by 2003and will include wet and drylabs, as well as a clinic.

At full strength, the institutewill have 20 scientists. Somepreliminary appointments havealready been made. But the realramp-up in recruitment won’tstart until the new premises arenearer completion, saysAmaral. The team willeventually consist of peoplewith neuroimaging expertise,along with molecularneurobiologists. And, as thereis a strong implication thatchildren with autism haveimpaired immune systems —as some children have foodallergies — Amaral also expectsto recruit neuroimmunologistsand nutritionists. D.G.

Unlocking the secrets of autism

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Research director of the MIND Institute,David Amaral (right), plans to get to theheart of neurodevelopmental disorders.

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