WIM no. 17 Spring 2020

מכון ויצמן למדע platform for the discovery of basic mechanisms of brain integrity, their failure in neurodegeneration and the potential means of amelioration. Research will leverage the developmental, sensorimotor, memory, and aging advances of its sister centers, and return key insights into the molecular, cellular, genetic, and systems-level mechanisms fundamental to how the nervous system functions. Injury and Regeneration Unlike the expansive growth and adaptation of neurons in early development, central nervous system neurons undergo little or no regeneration following injuries, such as those to the spinal cord, that occur during adulthood. This failure of resilience has been attributed to a combination of inhibitory extrinsic factors—such as traumatic injury—as well as the loss of intrinsic growth ability. Q What happens to the nervous systemwhen it is injured? How can we repair damage to the brain and spinal cord? A Scientists will work to understand the role of these intrinsic and extrinsic factors, which may shed light on how to convince damaged neurons to regenerate. Research will address such fundamental questions as the response to injury and the growth potential of damaged neural tissue. Researchers will also draw insights from organisms such as fish and amphibians, who regenerate neurons with far greater efficiency than mammals do. Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience Theoretical and computational neuroscientists ask questions about the principles that underlie the design of neural circuits, neural coding, and information processing in the brain—and the resulting impact on behavior. Their research aims to reveal how neural circuits form, how they function, and how they learn, and how they might be corrected when damaged—or even improved. Q What is the ‘language’—the neural code— used by the hundreds of billions of neurons in the brain? How does this language enable the brain to perform the sophisticated computations that make us human? A Researchers in this center will employ mathematical tools taken from statistical physics, dynamic systems, machine learning, and information theory to create new models and theories of brain function, and engage in intense collaborations with experimental laboratories. The resulting computational tools for analyzing ‘Big Data’ will open up new experimental frontiers, while theoretical models for understanding the design and function of neural circuits will inform both pathology and drug design. Ultimately, it will reveal the ways in which ‘bugs’ in the neural code underlie neurological disease. Development of Innovative Technologies Weizmann scientists have an extensive history of developing groundbreaking technologies that have been implemented throughout the international neuroscience community. This center will leverage that expertise as a hub for the development of new technologies and techniques that are necessary to accelerate the pace of discovery across all the centers in the Institute for Brain and Neural Sciences. The creation of such technologies require close collaboration among biologists, physicists, chemists, engineers, and computer scientists. These experts will work together to identify specific problems, brainstorm solutions, and then design and build these solutions. Weizmann MAGAZINE 26–27 S P R I N G 2 0 2 0