Brain fund a ‘game-changer’:

Some of the best brains in the world have applauded President Barack Obama’s initiative to create a $100 million project that will explore details of the brain, known as the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Technologies (BRAIN) project.

The project will help find better ways to treat neurological conditions such as traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and stroke. Funding will start in 2014 with $100 million and is to be distributed through the US National Science Foundation, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Institute of Health. Four private donors have also pledged significant contributions towards the project including from Paul Allen of Microsoft, the Kavali Foundation, the Salk Institute and the Howard Hughes Medical Foundation.

Supporters such as Dr Anthony Santiago of the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona says that it can’t happen fast enough.

“Although we have a seen a number of advances in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease in the last several years, there are still millions of patients whose lives have been devastated. This major research initiative could be the game-changer as we better understand the neurological changes that are at the centre of Parkinson’s disease.”

The Alzheimer’s Association in the US also welcomed the initiative, as did the American Academy of Neurology.

But some scientists see it as a wasted opportunity for two reasons. First, that the focus of the BRAIN project is narrow and limited and second, that the European Commission also allocated €1 billion to its own Human Brain Project earlier this year.

Instead, critics suggest the money would have been better spent giving several existing and well-defined brain projects funding boosts of $1-2 million each to help the US become a world hub for neuroscience research.

In Australia, stroke and dementia/Alzheimer’s disease were the second and third leading causes of death respectively in 2010, accounting for more than 20,000 deaths. The leading cause of death in Australia in 2010 was heart disease accounting for almost 22,000 deaths.