OSU Brain Initiative
An interdisciplinary initiative at Oklahoma State University
OSU Brain Initiative members come from three OSU system campuses:
The age of the brain
This is the age of the brain. A major emphasis of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funding neuroscience research, particularly studies that investigate the link between the brain, health, environment and behavior. Neuroscience is becoming a popular undergraduate major, a focus of graduate studies, and an interdisciplinary research theme at universities across the country.
The Oklahoma link
A particular focus in neuroscience is understanding how stress and adversity influence brain development and subsequent health and functioning. Oklahoma has the highest rates of early life adversity according to recent research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Child Trends. OSU recently received more than $11 million from the NIH to develop the Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Adversity (CIRCA), including research on adversity and brain development.
The OSU Brain Initiative builds on this initiative and fulfills our land-grant mission to apply cutting-edge research to solve real-world problems and to train and educate the next generation of scientists and educators.
The OSU Brain Initiative
Neuroscience research brings together investigators from multiple disciplines, such as psychology, developmental and human sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering, medicine, and physics.
The OSU Brain Initiative is a faculty-driven initiative that will be implemented in several phases:
- Convening interested faculty members from across the university system to plan initial steps of action
- Exploring possible undergraduate and graduate training programs in neuroscience
- Seeking funds for a state-of-the-art neuroscience research center that includes neuroimaging capabilities
- Developing outreach programs to bring brain science to communities throughout Oklahoma
OSU Biomedical Imaging Center
The most advanced MRI system in the state is located at the new OSU Biomedical Imaging Center at the Hardesty Center for Clinical Research and Neuroscience in Tulsa. The OSU Biomedical Imaging Center houses the Siemens Magnetom 3 Tesla MRI. The Prisma 3T MRI offers you an incredible look inside the human body, often with shorter scan times than typical MRI systems. This is truly the future of medical imaging. The OSU Biomedical Imaging Center brings research-grade MRI to a clinic setting, providing patients and their doctors with the image quality that supports more advanced care. Read more in the Tulsa World.
Contact
For more information, contact Mallory Schmidt at mallory.schmidt10@okstate.edu.