Neuroscience institute to be launched

Plans for a major new neuroscience institute are underway after the University Board of Trustees approved a wide-ranging proposal last week to expand Princeton's emphasis on the fast-growing field.

Funding permitting, the administration hopes to break ground on a new neuroscience building, recruit more faculty and revamp the undergraduate and graduate curricula — all with the goal of pushing the University to the forefront of neuroscience research.

Leading the effort are molecular biology professor David Tank and psychology professor Jonathan Cohen. Neither could be reached for comment Tuesday.

"The institute is fabulous news for neuroscience at Princeton," molecular biology professor Michael Berry said. "Neuroscience is a field that's going places. It makes a lot of sense to improve its presence here."

Though plans to expand neuroscience have been under discussion for a number of years, they were jumpstarted in October when a panel of external advisers visited the University to assess the current status of the program and how it can be improved.

Instead of working on every type of neuroscience, as larger schools with medical schools are able to do, the University's strategy will be to concentrate on a subset of the field — theoretical and quantitative neuroscience — that draws on the University's traditional strengths, Berry said.

"We're never going to compete in size with other places," Berry said. "We have to focus. But computational neuroscience is the most exciting direction anyhow. It makes us distinctive, more forward-looking."

This focus also plays well into the University's efforts to increase interdisciplinary research. One of the goals of the institute will be to "consolidate physics, psychology, molecular biology and the other relevant fields," President Tilghman told The Daily Princetonian last month. "Just as in the case of genomics, we're looking for a coherent, wonderful undergraduate and graduate program."

The University hopes to hire about 10 new faculty members, Berry said, and host them in a new neuroscience building. Currently, the two main wings of neuroscience are located on different sides of campus, with psychology in Green Hall and molecular biology in several connected down-campus buildings.

"It's hard to overstate how helpful bringing everyone together will be," Berry said. "Even in our Internet and email age, it's still true that people on the same floor will have the vast majority of the contacts. It's a huge effect."

The institute will also change neuroscience education at the University. Currently, most students interested in neuroscience declare either psychology or molecular biology as their home department and pursue an additional neuroscience certificate. Though the institute will not immediately create a distinct neuroscience major, students will enjoy a more cohesive and expansive curriculum within the certificate program, Berry said.

As of next fall, the core neuroscience classes will be reworked to reduce overlap and several new electives will be offered, Berry added. Carlos Brody, an associate professor recently recruited from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, plans to teach a 400-level computational neuroscience course, and current assistant professors Jonathan Eggenschwiler and Asif Ghazanfar will offer new neurodevelopment and neuroethology courses.

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Within five years, the plans will put Princeton neuroscience firmly on the map, Berry said. "Seven to eight years ago, Princeton didn't have too much going for it in neuroscience," he said. "Now we're really building momentum."