Brain modeling projects on both sides of the Atlantic are taking off, according to the projects’ leaders. The European Commission-led Human Brain Project (HBP) is on track as it reaches its first anniversary. Criticized by many in the neuroscience community for being overly ambitious, the $1.6 billion project has nevertheless expanded to 112 partners in 24 countries in its first year, mostly in Europe, but also Canada, China, Israel, Japan and the United States.
At the second annual conference taking place in Heidelberg, 400 HBP participants from 12 countries will present their early findings and discuss the future challenges facing global collaborative brain research. With 90 percent of its targets met, director Henry Markram is confident that the initiative is well-positioned to tackle new frontiers in neuroscience, medicine, and computing.
“The plan we set out on day one is being executed remarkably well,” Markram, also a Professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), told journalists at a press conference. “Some (sub-projects) are even seeing steps we didn’t think would happen in the first two to three years.”
Scientific highlights include the following:
• Brain Simulation: The HBP has applied brain simulation techniques originally developed for the neocortex to a new brain region—the cerebellum.
• Neurorobotics: The HBP has developed a prototype virtual room to link up brain models with virtual “bodies” and study emergent cognition and behaviour.
• High Performance Computing: Pre-commercial procurement of research and development on “interactive supercomputers” has been successfully launched. Interactivity will be the key feature of future supercomputers for brain research.
• Future Computing: Brain-inspired neuromorphic chips to rival today’s high-performance computers are now being tested by HBP researchers for their versatility in solving modern day computing challenges.
• Brain Disease: A new strategy for categorising and classifying large volume of patient data has been developed, a first step towards personalised medicine.
• Mouse Brain Data: Key missing data on the cellular organisation of the mouse brain has been generated and the technique to determine all genes switched on and off in single neurons has been established, a first step towards isolating all the genetic types of cells in the brain.
• Human Brain Data: The highest resolution 3D cellular data on the human brain has been produced (BigBrain). It will serve as a reference for the HBP Human Brain Atlas.
• Theoretical Neuroscience: The European Institute for Theoretical Neuroscience (EITN)’s inauguration in September kicked off workshops on topics linking different aspects of HBP.
The project is using real-time streaming between supercomputing centers to facilitate “analysis on the fly” of data generated by the simulations. Project leaders have dubbed the technique “interactive supercomputing.”
“It’s a completely new form of supercomputing that I think has been pioneered by this project,” said Karlheinz Meier, the HBP’s co-director in charge of computing and a professor at Heidelberg.
Despite the progress, there is still debate over whether the project’s goals are unrealistic. In July hundreds of neuroscientists signed their names to an open letter arguing that the technology needed for a neuron for neuron brain replica was not evolved enough to support such an undertaking. The counter to that claim has been that it’s the nature of flagship projects to be ambitious and far-reaching. A mediator has been brought in to manage the conflict.
US-led BRAIN Initiative
The US is also launching the first wave of its brain project, which is being called the next “moon shot.” The National Institutes of Health announced today initial investments totaling $46 million to support the goals of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. As part of the effort, more than 100 investigators in 15 states and several countries are partnering to develop new tools and technologies to understand neural circuit function and capture a dynamic view of the brain in action.
The initiative will pave the way for new treatments and cures for devastating brain disorders and diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism, traumatic brain injury, depression and a range of other brain diseases.
“It’s the thing that makes you who you are,” said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health. “We think we know how it works, but we don’t.”
There were 58 projects announced today in a number of key research areas, including:
• Classifying the myriad cell types in the brain.
• Producing tools and techniques for analyzing brain cells and circuits.
• Creating next-generation human brain imaging technology.
• Developing methods for large-scale recordings of brain activity.
• Integrating experiments with theories and models to understand the functions of specific brain circuits.
Unveiled by President Obama last year, the BRAIN Initiative spans four federal agencies: the NIH, the National Science Foundation, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The NIH component is guided by a long-term scientific plan, entitled BRAIN 2025: A Scientific Vision, which calls for a sustained federal commitment of $4.5 billion over 12 years.