In the NIH’s first round of awards as part of the White House’s BRAIN Initiative, 2 UCSF scientists, One Mind Assistant Professor Dr. Vikaas Sohal, and Dr. John Rubenstein, have been given a grant to perform some cut-to-the-chase research: The duo will use Rubenstein’s technology to target specific neurons in the mouse brain, which Sohal’s lab will then characterize and stimulate to potentially remedy modeled disease symptoms. What if this could work in humans?

Says Sohal, “by measuring and manipulating the activity of specific subpopulations of inhibitory neurons, we should be able to do many more projects like the one I described at the Music Festival for Brain Health – in which we figure out which specific cells are “broken” in mice that have a particular mutation, and then stimulate specific cells in order to restore normal behavior.  In the future, we may even be able to use the enhancer elements that John discovers to target and repair specific cell types in the human brain.”

This is Sohal’s second BRAIN Initiative award this year (the first was funded by DARPA), building on research funded by One Mind. We at One Mind are beyond excited to see Sohal’s success and at the potential to help patients inherent in this proposal. Big thanks go to our donors for making such research possible.