SfN’s Commitment to Elevating Brain Research
Policy
FEATURE: Message from the President: Elevating Brain Research
Read a message from the current SfN president Diane Lipscombe in Neuroscience Quarterly on the critical importance of advocacy and public outreach in neuroscience. Here, Lipscombe highlights SfN’s annual Capitol Hill Day, BrainFacts.org, and international Brain Awareness Week as key components to advancing the public’s knowledge of the importance of brain research. Click to learn more about the many different ways you can get involved!
NIH Asks Federal Watchdog to Investigate 12 Allegations Related to Foreign Influence
February 8, 2019 | Science
A newly released letter from a government watchdog has shed a little light on an ongoing U.S. government effort to scrutinize federally funded biomedical research for potentially problematic foreign involvement. The letter reveals that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, recently asked federal investigators to review 12 allegations of rule violations, mostly involving researchers at U.S. universities who allegedly failed to disclose foreign affiliations on their grant proposals.
Rookies Lead the Way on House Science Panel
February 4, 2019 | Science
A major perk of being the majority party in the U.S. Congress is getting to fill the leadership slots on every committee. For several new Democratic legislators, however, having their party regain control of the House of Representatives also creates an unprecedented opportunity to shape U.S. science policy.
Scientists Protest Plan to Weaken US Gender-Discrimination Law
January 29, 2019 | Nature
A controversial US government proposal to change the law that prohibits gender discrimination in education has drawn more than 100,000 public comments, including many from scientists. At issue is the future of Title IX, the 1972 statute that is the primary legal weapon for battling sexual harassment and other sexual misconduct in US academia.
Science in the News
Wyss Center Neurologist Awarded Prestigious Pfizer Research Prize
February 8, 2019 | Eurek Alert!
Maxime Baud, MD, PhD, Staff neurologist at the Wyss Center and epileptologist at the University of Bern and Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), was awarded the Pfizer Research Prize for his work in the field of neuroscience and nervous system disorders. The research, carried out in collaboration with colleagues from the University of California, San Francisco found that epilepsy seizures are linked to cycles of brain activity.
This Neuroscientist Makes Memories — and Suppresses Them
February 2019 | National Geographic
Steve Ramirez leads his own lab at Boston University, where he has figured out how to suppress bad memories by activating good ones. He and his team genetically engineer brain cells associated with memory in mice to respond to light.
Puerto Rico's 'Fear Lab' Mentors Neuroscience Rigor Amid Diversity
January 30, 2019 | Medical Express
A lineage of young neuroscientists from diverse backgrounds trace their scientific roots to a "fear lab" in Puerto Rico that the National Institutes of Health has been supporting for two decades. A crucible for studies of fear extinction, the lab has so far published 80 papers — some the first ever from Puerto Rico for certain journals — that generate more than 2,000 citations a year. Of 130 young people trained in the lab, 90 percent are from Puerto Rico and Latin America and half are women.
Male Birds’ Sexy Songs May Not Advertise Their Brains After All
January 25, 2019 | Science News
After some 20 years of theorizing, a scientist is publicly renouncing the “beautiful hypothesis” that male birds’ sexy songs could indicate the quality of their brains.
