Women in Research: Dr. Cori Bargmann

Dr. Cori Bargmann is the co-chair of the one of the most ambitious neuroscientific undertakings of the century, the BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies). First announced in April 2013 by President Obama, it exists to “revolutionize our understanding of the human mind and uncover new ways to treat, prevent, and cure brain disorders like Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury.”

Bargmann has spent her entire professional life in neuroscience and is one of the field’s chief luminaries. She earned her doctorate from MIT and now leads a laboratory at Rockefeller University. Over her distinguished career she has collected dozens of accolades and been awarded numerous prizes including the million-dollar Kavli Prize in Neuroscience and the $3 million Breakthrough Prize.

The BRAIN Initiative which she leads includes the following objectives:

• Assist in solving social and economic issues including brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, traumatic brain injuries, and so on.
• Function as a “North Star” for multi-disciplinary collaborations among government, university, industry, non-profit, and philanthropic interests.
• Generate a platform for industries and jobs of the future.
• Recruit public interest and stimulate support for public policies that foster science, technology, and innovation.
• Inspire the scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs of the rising generation.

At the earliest stages of the project, it was soon recognized that an undertaking of this magnitude could never be accomplished without a collaborative approach, and after much head scratching, Bargmann and her committee “looked at each other and realized that, in spite of the many disciplines we all represented, we couldn’t speak for all the disciplines that would be needed.”

This led the committee to organize workshops in Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Minnesota where the top leaders of various disciplines could come to formulate and propose ideas. Patient advocacy groups, physicians, and even the lay public were welcome to attend these workshops to provide feedback. In the end, the disciplines represented included “chemistry and molecular biology; electrophysiology and optics; structural neurobiology; computation, theory, and data analysis; and human neuroscience.”

The timing of the BRAIN Initiative is especially propitious with the advent of technology that affords an intermediate scale view of the brain. Says Bargmann, “We used to be able to look at the brain’s 10 billion neurons either one neuron at a time, or with a satellite view of millions of neurons at a time, but neither view captures the circuits by which the brain actually works.” She continues, “Using improved multi-electrode recording arrays, as well as new optical recording methods with genetic and chemical sensors of neuronal activity, we can now simultaneously track the individual activity of hundreds of thousands of interconnected neurons.”

To understand the significance of an intermediate scale view, Bargmann suggests imagining trying to grasp how a hospital functions by following a random person around inside it. “If we followed only the receptionist, we’d get a very distorted view of what happens there. A view of the hospital’s lights from an airplane won’t help us much either,” she explains. “We need to follow enough individual people to see the ways that doctors, patients, staff, and visitors interact with each other.”

“In the last few years,” she concludes, “we’ve developed tools that can optically monitor tens of thousands of neurons. We are now able to monitor neuronal activity on the scale that we need to understand what circuits are actually doing.”

Moving forward with the project, Bargmann is as passionate as she’s ever been. “Science is a mystery with a solution, and being a scientist is a privilege,” she reflects. “Over the course of my career I’ve watched surprising advances in human medicine and [had] the incredible joy of interacting with really smart people. I can’t imagine not being a neuroscientist. It’s just a great human experience.”

At Lifecycle Biotechnologies, in our role of providing leading-edge tools and services to medical research labs, we’re committed to supporting women in medicine and all fields of research, keeping up-to-date of the latest scientific discoveries and breakthroughs they make possible. In doing so, we aim to better understand and respond to the needs of the rapidly evolving industry and support our diverse customer population across multiple disciplinary specialties and market divisions.

If you’d like to see how our innovative tools and services can help your company scale for the research methodologies of the future, contact us today and see what we can do for you.