Neuropsychiatric disease is a public health challenge. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that psychiatric disorders are the most expensive of all health problems. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (2015), psychiatric illness affects 1 in 5 Americans, with at least 6% of these individuals suffering from serious disability. Unfortunately, our understanding of the etiology of many of these conditions, from schizophrenia to autism, is poor. In the absence of understanding the primary cause of these conditions, treatment is difficult and often ineffective.

Neuro-pharmaceutics focuses on identification of therapeutic targets, and then translating those discoveries into drug and therapy development. Neuro-oncology research in our program is largely also focused on neuropharmaceutic approaches. Not only is there a need for neuroactive drugs, but there is a need to improve methods of delivery of those drugs to the brain.

Neuroimaging and optogenetics are tools, but modern neuroimaging has transformed our ability to study dynamic processes in the nervous system in a non-invasive, rapid, and real-time manner. The University of Minnesota has one of the world’s premier high and ultrahigh field function magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) facilities in the Center of Magnetic Resonance Research.

Neurogenetics is the study of the genes that control development, function, and diseases of the nervous system. It also would include research that uses modern molecular biological methods to address genetic differences between normal and diseased nervous system, or uses the manipulations of genes to either produce or reduce disease states – often with a focus on genes known to be due to genetic mutations. Modern molecular biology provides power to our ability to probe the genetic bases of genetic disease and complex gene interactions to produce neurological disorders.

Neuroengineering focuses on translation of our knowledge of the brain into practical solutions for therapeutic intervention as well as fundamental expansion of knowledge of brain function through studies of basic brain mechanisms of metabolism and function. A large number of neuroscience faculty at the University of Minnesota span the interface between basic Neuroscience and translation to treatments. This includes faculty who work on the development of brain-machine interfaces.

Neuroendocrine disorders represent conditions where homeostatic mechanisms of control of the endocrine and autonomic nervous system are impaired, resulting in obesity, hypertension, gastric ulcers, and depression. The faculty members who study these complex disorders use a broad array of approaches in order to understand the molecular, cellular, and systems level controls of these processes.

Neurons are the building blocks of our central nervous system. Their importance is highlighted by the diseases that result from their injury and death. Unfortunately, neurons do not reproduce or replace themselves when injured, which results  in devastating neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s disease. Neurodegenerative diseases represent an enormous burden on society, both in terms of the economic cost and in human suffering. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2015), Alzheimer’s disease alone affects 5.4 million people in the U.S.

Pain plays an important role in protecting the integrity of the body. However, there are times when this protective mechanism becomes compromised, causing pain to persist long after the tissues have healed. Chronic pain affects over 100 million adults in the U.S. According to a study by the National Academy of Science (2011), chronic pain results in a tremendous loss to quality of life. It has been estimated to cost $635 billion in health care costs and inability to work, greater than the annual costs of heart disease, cancer, or diabetes.

Research in motor control deals primarily with the control of limb movement in three-dimensional space and hand-eye coordination, including the functions of the motor cortex, basal ganglia, cerebellum and cerebellar afferent systems, and the nature of sensorimotor transformations controlling movement. These As skeletal muscles are the final effector organ for the central and peripheral nervous system control of movement, muscle function is critical for movements and postural stability.

Developmental Neuroscience covers a broad range of fundamental and disease related biological processes in both vertebrate and invertebrate systems. The aim of these studies is to understand the complex molecular and cellular events that lead to normal and abnormal brain development. There are millions of children in the United States alone who suffer from neurological disorders that are based on improper neurodevelopment.