Azrieli Institute for Brain and Neural Sciences

With a focus on translating fundamental neuroscience research into medical solutions, this center will promote collaborations between Weizmann scientists and clinicians in Israel and worldwide, developing new technology and data analysis tools.

This center addresses such fundamental questions as the response to injury and the growth potential of damaged neural tissue ‐ which is due not only to the neuron itself, but also to the support it receives from neighboring tissue. Researchers also draw insights from other organisms, including fish and amphibians, who regenerate neurons with far greater efficiency than mammals. Insights may lead to therapies and tools to rewire and regenerate injured neurons, helping to return individuals to full health after a stroke, acquired brain injury, or traumatic brain injury.

Supporting the development of new technologies and techniques to benefit all brain and neural science research, this center brings together biologists, physicists, chemists, engineers, and computer scientists to design and build innovative tools.

This center supports studies of brain activity underlying memory and behavior, using neuroimaging and electrophysiological technologies. The team works to expand research on artificial intelligence and approaches to enhance brain function and boost human capabilities.

Combining a variety of methods and approaches, this center sheds light on the mechanisms and properties of emotional regulation. Findings provide insights that will help encourage mental resilience, prevent mental illness, and inform the design of new treatments and therapies.

Research in this center focuses on the causes and trajectories of neurodegenerative diseases with the goal of improving methods to prevent, detect, delay, or even cure them. The center serves as a platform for initiating and boosting collaborations with clinicians in hospitals and medical centers.

Supporting the use of innovative tools and technologies to study interactions among neurons, neural tissue, and immune cells, the goal of this center is to understand and modulate the neural/immune interface to enhance healthy brain function.

This center supports technologically advanced efforts to reveal how the diversity of specific types of neurons emerge during development, how neurons migrate to their correct locations, and how neurons' extensions are guided over long distances to find their targets. Implications include a variety of neurodevelopmental diseases and disorders.

The center aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of how sensory input translates into action. Research explores forms of sensory processing, including vision, audition, olfaction, taste, and touch, as well as sensorimotor integration and navigation.

This center initiates empirical research on a range of brain functions, including resilience to stress and individual differences in how we overcome traumas, injuries, and age-related deficits.

The center supports research to unravel the basic principles of nerve cell communication and to crack the underlying neural code. Scientists develop new tools and methods to clarify how cognition and behavior emerge from brain activity while also investigating ways to help the brain recover from neuropsychiatric or neurodegeneration conditions. They also work to accelerate progress in the field of artificial intelligence, making such systems more sophisticated, useful, and reliable.