Rutgers University is collaborating with Big Pharma to study some of the most perplexing brain pathologies of our time: autism, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and some types of age-related hearing loss.
The Brain Health Institute is designed to bring university and pharmaceutical research together in a new way, said Robin Davis, a Rutgers neuroscientist and assistant dean who co-founded the institute.
The basic research into disease conducted by universities often is on a separate track from the applied research done by pharmaceutical companies in bringing a drug to market. The institute aims to marry the tracks and bolster chances for securing federal research funds.
"University scientists establish the fundamental knowledge, and pharmaceuticals do development and testing," Davis said. "We want to combine the strength of the two areas working together and expand the view of everybody."
