Featured Story:
Advances in Gene Therapy for Eye Diseases
July 3, 2025
Connie Cepko provides an overview of her lab’s longstanding work developing gene therapies for ocular diseases using mouse and rat models. She shares images from studies on retinitis pigmentosa, the most common cause of inherited retinal degeneration worldwide—showing, for instance, how gene therapy can combat oxidation to prolong the survival of cone photoreceptors in the mouse retina, as well as preserve the retinal pigment epithelium.
Community Stories
August 20, 2025
New research reveals that acute and chronic insults both reshape how pain signals are sent to the brain, but through distinct mechanisms. By using long-term calcium imaging in mice, researchers from the Woolf lab tracked the same spinal cord neurons over time and found that acute pain temporarily increases sensitivity, while chronic nerve injury recruits a previously ‘silent’ group of neurons – offering a potential key to understanding chronic pain.
Original article in: Neuron >
August 13, 2025
Bryan Baxter and Dara Manoach share a new study on the brain basis of motor learning. When learning a typing task, epilepsy patients show higher rates of “hippocampal ripples”--an electrical activity pattern in the brain associated with memory formation--during brief rest breaks than during the typing itself. These ‘offline’ ripples predict gains in speed, suggesting that ripples contribute to motor learning during wakeful rest.
Original article in: Nature Communications >
July 17, 2025
Dost Öngür introduces a perspectives piece arising from a meeting he recently organized, bringing together experts in neuroscience, psychiatry, and metabolism to discuss how disruptions in brain energy metabolism may contribute to psychiatric disorders—and what might be done to develop innovative therapeutics.
Original article in: Nature Mental Health >
June 16, 2025
It was long thought that only neurons in the outermost regions of the brain, called the cortex, could adapt and change their properties in response to visual experience. Takuma Sonoda and Chinfei Chen share new findings revealing that the visual thalamus, a structure in the center of the brain, at an earlier stage in the visual pathway than the cortex, can also change based on what animals see. Their discovery expands our understanding of how sensory systems learn and adapt.
Original article in: Cell >
In the News
September 25, 2025
The new center, supported by a gift to Harvard University from philanthropist K. Lisa Yang, will bring together scientists working to demystify brain-body communication. The center is part of the Yang Tan Collective, which includes six research centers at MIT and two at HMS. The collective brings together top scientists and fellows in a focused, collaborative community that aims to turn fundamental discoveries into solutions that improve quality of life.
September 25, 2025
For years, people with paralysis have used brain-computer interfaces to turn neural signals into actions by thinking about the actions they would like to take: typing words, controlling robotic arms, and producing speech. A new study shows that the interfaces could translate not only intended speech, but internal thoughts as well. A new study examines the representation of inner speech in motor cortex and its implications for speech neuroprostheses.
Original article in: Cell >
September 25, 2025
The Harvard Gazette summarizes the current state of Alzheimer's research and profiles the research of Steven Arnold, Reisa Sperling, Ted Zwang, Sudeshna Das, Bradley Hyman, and Bruce Yankner. These researchers hope new technologies and approaches will usher in era of effective treatment for this incurable disease amid the urgency of an aging population.
Awards & Honors
September 4, 2025
Round up of awards and honors earned by the HBI community.
July 31, 2025
Round up of awards and honors earned by the HBI community.