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The Center for Innovation in Brain Science mission is a collaborative, enabling research environment in which innovation is fostered and developed to address a challenge that have global proportions and individual significance: age-related neurodegenerative diseases.
The prevailing paradigm in academic-based therapeutic development is built upon the “bench to bedside” approach, where a discovery in the laboratory is followed by a search for a potential disease application.
Our approach is different.
By reversing the discovery process and beginning at the bedside and moving to the bench, we are creating a highly personalized approach to discovery of mechanisms and therapeutic targets of opportunity.
Age remains the greatest risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis and ALS. A critical factor in age-associated vulnerability to disease is that aging occurs at the systems level, which makes single target, single molecule strategies unlikely successful therapeutic solutions.
Using a deep, broad reservoir of expertise, from basic science to translational neuroscience, we are elevating team science and enabling rich collaborations. Age-associated neurodegenerative diseases are multifactorial, complex and dynamic. As the disease progresses, so do pathways that are activated and the multiple systems of biology that interact.
While complex, the etiologies share a number of common features, emergence during aging, a prodromal phase, beginning in late midlife, genetic predispositions, gender differences in prevalence, and an energy crisis in the brain.
The Center for Innovation in Brain Science is uniting neuroscience across disciplines around a common cause while filling a critical gap in translational neuroscience, bringing together the expertise of clinicians and scientists across the spectrum of clinical, informatics, translational, computational modeling and basic neurosciences.
We are a unique hub for research knowledge, technologies, computational resources and integrative collaborations to develop therapeutics for age-related neurodegenerative diseases.
The Center for Innovation in Brain Science (CIBS) at the University of Arizona is using its expertise in translational neuroscience to discover and develop novel therapeutics that address serious unmet medical needs and change the outcome for millions of people and their families living with debilitating neurodegenerative diseases.
The center is rapidly advancing programs across a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases: Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis and ALS. The CIBS collaborative research model integrates discovery, translational and clinical science that enables it to validate targets and generate novel therapeutic candidates selective for proteins that play critical roles in neurodegenerative disease pathways.
We welcome inquiries regarding partnerships.
CIBS is combining cutting-edge behavioral tools to simulate the influence of environmental factors on genetic risks to create novel disease models. Already serving the researchers within CIBS to screen genetic models, we’re seeking out collaborators on campus and beyond to determine common mechanisms between neurodegeneration and other diseases.
With deep expertise in high-throughput behavioral research, the neurobehavioral core at CIBS focuses on cognitive neurobehavioral tests, non-invasive sleep measures, and high-speed gait analyses. We also maintain a focused interest on impaired sleep as it contributes to neurodegenerative diseases and may be used to potentially screen at-risk individuals. Our team has developed a strong phenotyping core that provides CIBS researchers with sensitive, high-throughput tasks such as:
Other available testing includes glucose testing, rotarod, radial arm maze, and Barnes maze.
Within the core, sensitive, high-throughput testing has been streamlined in order, not only to detect subtle changes in longitudinal health but also small variations between strains. With our naturalistic neurobehavioral tasks, we hope to be able to isolate the contributing effect that environmental factors, such as stress and sleep disturbances, have on converting genetic risk factors, such as APOE4 and GBA, into pathology.
To learn more about potential collaborations, contact our Neurobehavioral Core.
Heralding a new age of systems biology-driven drug discovery is the accessibility of multi-omics data, the near instant availability of millions of electronic medical records and innovations in machine learning and high-performance computing. Yet, few programs are preparing students and early faculty to succeed and lead in this new reality.
The Center for Innovation in Brain Science is leading efforts to train the next generation of neuroscience researchers, with invaluable support from the National Institutes of Health.
Our fellows receive specific training on translational research strategies and drug discovery from leading scientists at the Center for Innovation in Brain Science. Through these programs, they gain exposure to the science behind the design and implementation of clinical trials and bench-to-bedside drug discovery.
These programs provide extraordinary opportunities: mentorship of the next generation of neuroscientists; focus on bridging gaps between basic, translational and clinical research; and growing trainees into leaders who will make transformative contributions to healthcare research. We are recruiting top students and early career professionals who possess diverse cultural and research interests, skills, and experiences. Trainees in these unique programs are immersed in a highly individualized training environment with the goal of integrating cutting edge research into a solid background of clinical science in a format that best fits individuals’ research interests.
Guided by the insight that each patient’s unique biology and diverse life history holds the keys to discovering the therapeutic best suited for them, our students begin their program by listening and learning from patients and their caregivers.
Problem based learning approaches prepare the next generation of scientists and clinicians to navigate and fuse multiple data streams, from electronic medical records to cutting-edge genomics and molecular level computational simulations. Working together in dedicated innovation teams, each student cohort focuses on delivering the right therapeutic for the right patient at the right time.
Funded by a five-year, $1.8 million grant, in partnership with the University of Arizona Clinical and Translational Sciences Program, the Translational Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and AD-related Dementias (AZ-TRADD) is creating new cohorts of cross-disciplinary students able to navigate the translational landscape, from target discovery to clinical trial execution, while cultivating the professional skills required to lead team science in the 21st century.
Developing a biomedical workforce rooted in the traditions and cultures of Native American populations is the focus of a $1.3 million NIH grant (URBRAIN). A cooperative training program has been developed to create a pipeline of Navajo students who are prepared to advance from Diné College (on the Navajo nation) to neuroscience programs at top-tier research universities, including the University of Arizona. This model of culturally grounded STEM education bolsters the university’s commitment to cultural diversity, supports diversity within the NIH workforce and helps to address Native American health disparities.
The Arizona ADRC-REC provides research opportunities and experiences to enable the next generation of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Alzheimer’s Disease-related Dementia (ADRD) research leaders. This program utilizes a team science approach, bringing together junior faculty and research associates across clinical, translational, data and the basic sciences to advance brain health, develop interventions to prevent, treat and cure AD and ADRD, and develop the skills necessary to achieve success in the 21st century.
We are recruiting predoctoral PhD and MD/PhD trainees across multiple scientific disciplines and employing problem-based learning approaches to solve challenges in AD therapeutic development with emerging tools and techniques. Through these training programs, trainees gain important development and leadership skills necessary to conduct team science and manage multidisciplinary teams in the 21st century.
This program is aligned with the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA), with the goal of filling critical gaps that exist for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) translational research in academic graduate programs.
> cultivate the ability to creatively and collaboratively solve problems working with experts across the translational landscape as part of large-scale team science;
> gain an applied understanding of how data science, particularly using data generated by AMP-AD, M2OVE-AD and ADNI, can accelerate translational research and provide avenues to novel therapeutic insights;
> connect genotypic and phenotypic variations and multi-faceted etiology of AD to therapeutic targets;
> acquire essential professional and business skills to navigate a diverse funding landscape and translate discoveries into the clinical setting.
