“People are the heart of the institute,” said Diane Lipscombe, the Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Director at Carney. “They innovate, create and enable. This year, Carney scientists led transformative research at the intersection of computational brain science and AI, uncovered cells and circuits that underlie behavior and advanced technologies to treat brain disease.”
Here’s a recap of 2024:
Getting smarter, naturally and artificially: Carney researchers are creating methods for building better artificial intelligence systems and using AI tools to advance neuroscience. Carina Curto, a new Carney endowed professor in the Division of Applied Mathematics, brought together great minds in mathematics and neuroscience for a semester-long program at Brown’s ICERM, then followed it up with a talk at the 2024 BRAIN NeuroAI Workshop. Thomas Serre and his research group are leading cutting-edge work in explainable AI, while Michael Frank and Ellie Pavlick are studying the connections between large language models and the human brain. Leo Kozachkov, who Carney recruited this year, will bring expertise in natural and artificial intelligence when he arrives in 2025 to take up his faculty position in the School of Engineering.
Driving progress in Alzheimer’s disease: This was a pivotal year for Carney’s latest initiative, the Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research. Director Bess Frost was appointed in June and, one month later, the center announced the appointment of Edward “Ted” Huey, the head of Butler Hospital’s Memory and Aging Program, as associate director. The pair hit the ground running. Frost and Huey this fall launched the center’s first faculty search, and are hosting all-campus gathering of Alzheimer’s disease researchers. Frost and Huey also delivered high-profile talks, with Huey addressing peers at an NIH summit in September and Frost delivering the keynote at the Alzheimer’s Association of Rhode Island in November.
Celebrating innovation: Carney this year marked the 10th anniversary of the Zimmerman Innovation Awards in Brain Science, which have so far supported 45 high-risk, high-reward research projects and brought in major follow-on funding. This year also marked the 20th anniversary of the first BrainGate implant in a person with paralysis. The BrainGate consortium continues to break new ground. This summer, researchers published a major advance in the New England Journal of Medicine: the brain-computer interface originally developed at Brown translates brain signals into speech with 97% accuracy.
Building community for postdocs: In the fall, for the first time, Carney postdoctoral research scientists organized a retreat to share know-how, advice and resources. Carney postdocs Debbie Yee and Darcy Diesburg - organizers of the two-day Cape Cod retreat - catalyzed peer support and scientific collaborations. Carney has a special emphasis on developing postdocs, winning a competitive NIH grant to launch the Advancing Research Careers, or ARC, program. Carney provides these scientists with customized mentorship, financial support and professional development.
Publishing high-impact research results: Carney scientists shared a raft of research results in 2024. This included work by Michael Frank, Wael Asaad, and former graduate student Guillaume J. Pagnier that showed how deep brain stimulation and dopaminergic therapy could cause impulsive behavior in people with Parkinson’s disease; a study conducted by Carney affiliates Noah Philip and Mascha van 't Wout-Frank that showed a combination therapy held promise for military veterans with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder; and work in the lab of Kate O’Connor-Giles that showed in fruit fly experiments the cause of a rare kind of intellectual disability - and that antioxidants can reverse its symptoms. Oriel FeldmanHall published work showing how humans create mental maps to understand complex social networks. Finally, David Sheinberg, Theresa Desrochers and Thomas Serre teamed up to uncover the best evidence yet that monkeys, like humans, use visual simulation - a form of imagination - to solve problems.
Improving behavioral health: Mental illness and addiction are major public health problems, and Carney researchers this year were recognized for alleviating the suffering associated with these conditions. Carney affiliate Frederike Petzschner won a $100,000 award from MIT’s Faculty Founder Initiative for the SOMA app, which helps people manage chronic pain – many of whom also suffer from depression. Stephanie Jones was a finalist for the same award for her work with Ceresim Technologies, a start-up creating software that can simulate the complex drivers of mental illness and predict therapeutic outcomes. At this year’s Society for Neuroscience conference, Karla Kaun took part in a high-profile panel and encouraged addiction researchers to advocate for their work. Her message: “Don’t underestimate the power of passionate communication.”