WIM no. 17 Spring 2020

מכון ויצמן למדע A wise future for neuroscience Weizmann’s flagship initiative will make us smarter than ever about the human brain N euroscience is at a critical juncture, with breakthroughs coming at a rapid pace. In the last decade alone, new imaging techniques and tools that allow scientists to see, stimulate, and record brain activity have opened the door to previously unfeasible studies. An explosion of knowledge in genomics has spurred explorations of psychiatric and other brain disorders. Links between the brain and the immune system have led to newways to think about diseases like Alzheimer’s, and the brain has been shown to be far moremalleable than we ever thought possible. Yet many fundamental mysteries remain unsolved. How do consciousness and cognition emerge from the brain’s complex neural networks? How does the brain respond to everyday experience, and to emotional stress and physical trauma? Why does brain function decline with age, and what are the circumstances underlying mental illness or neurodegeneration? Paradoxically, these technological advances and bold questions come on the fleeing heels of big pharmaceutical companies, who have found the risk/reward ratio in Cover Story Weizmann MAGAZINE