Sixty years ago, a small group of researchers founded the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, the first department of its kind in the United States. The founding members had already established superlative reputations in their own fields, such as biochemistry, physiology, and neuroanatomy. What brought them together was the belief of Stephen Kuffler, the initial chair of the department, that the task of understanding the brain was so all-encompassing that it required a dedicated field of study, one that drew on a wide range of expertise.
Today, the department is home to more than 30 faculty members, and Kuffler’s original vision has expanded to include genetics, molecular biology, high-resolution microscopy, computational modeling, and AI-driven analysis. Both within the department and at HMS-affiliated hospitals, a vast network of researchers and clinicians is focused on asking — and answering — profound questions about the brain and its disorders.
The stories in this issue offer a glimpse into where our fascination with the brain is leading us. The research of Rachel Wilson is illustrative. Much of her remarkable career has been devoted to using the fruit fly to investigate some of the most fundamental questions in neuroscience, including how individual neurons and the connections between them give rise to behavior.
At the Emerging Consciousness Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brian Edlow and Michael Young, MD ’16, are leading efforts to understand covert consciousness — a striking phenomenon in which patients with brain injury appear unresponsive on bedside exams but show signs of awareness on brain scans and other tests. Emery Brown, MD ’87, has spent much of his career exploring similar questions by studying states of consciousness in patients under anesthesia, and his research has reshaped our understanding of how anesthesia affects the brain and how it can be administered as safely as possible.
In the field of mental health, access to care remains a persistent challenge, and existing treatments fall short for too many patients. Will AI help close that gap or deepen the crisis? The work of HMS researchers is essential to ensuring AI is harnessed effectively and implemented safely. Scientists are also using a one-of-a-kind MRI scanner, the Connectome 2.0, to visualize the brain in unprecedented detail. Their work offers the promise of creating more personalized treatments for certain neurological and psychiatric conditions.
At HMS, we are planning for a future in which new modes of neuroscientific and neuropsychiatric research illuminate how healthy brains support cognition and emotional resilience, and we are laying the groundwork for prevention and treatment at scale. Our leadership in areas like connectomics is making HMS into the definitive institution for deciphering the human brain. Together, our faculty and alumni are revealing how the brain can be so effective at understanding itself.
George Q. Daley, MD ’91, is the dean of Harvard Medical School.