Human Brain, Blue Brain... now also Cal-BRAIN
California has adopted its own neurobiological Innovation Program,
despite the large-scale ten-year federal project BRAIN,
which Obama announced last year
Marina Astvatsaturyan, Echo of MoscowCalifornia Governor Jerry Brown signed an ambitious program to promote breakthrough neurobiological research on June 20.
The document legislates for the launch of the Cal-BRAIN project (California Blueprint for Research to Advance Innovations in Neuroscience) two million dollars from the state budget.
The nationwide BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) project has already received $110 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the American Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
As noted by Nature News (Brain wave hits California), California scientists and lawyers hope that a relatively modest one-time investment of the state will pave the way for larger multi-year investments that will give researchers the advantage of freedom in applying for grants under the national program.
"It's a drop in the bucket, but it's an important start," said Zack Lynch, executive director of the San Francisco-based Neurotechnology Industry Organization, which advocates for neuroscientists.
At the moment, Cal-BRAIN is staying away from the national initiative, clearly demonstrating interest in support from the industrial community. The program highlights the potential economic benefits of neurobiological research, and it also calls for the creation of a subroutine that would facilitate the commercialization of scientific discoveries. "California has a really good history of partnering with the private sector," adds Story Landis, director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland.
The cost of the 10-year initiative of the American president to study the brain by promoting innovative neurotechnologies may increase to $ 4.5 billion. The federal-level project has already attracted private institutions to cooperate, in particular the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla and the Kavli Foundation in Oxnard, both in California. Google is interested in working with neuroscientists to develop algorithms for computing and mapping based on the work of the brain. She is already working with the Allen Brain Institute in Seattle to create computer programs that construct a connectome, a three-dimensional map of all the neuronal connections of the brain.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru04.07.2014