US President Barack Obama has announced anambitious multidisciplinary program to create a map of the human brain thatcould help cure diseases such as Alzheimer's and epilepsy.
"We have been a nation of dreamers and risk-takers," said ObamaTuesday in the East Room of the White House before an audience includingseveral of the scientists and businessmen taking part in the project.
"Computer chips and GPS technology, the Internet - all these things grewout of government investments in basic research," the president said,before introducing the BRAIN Initiative as "the next great Americanproject".
The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN)Initiative has been allocated somewhat over $100 million in the 2014 budgetbill that the Obama administration will present this month.
Among the objectives of the effort launched Tuesday is helping scientists findways to treat, cure and even prevent diseases such as Alzheimer's, autism andepilepsy and to repair traumatic damage suffered by the brain.
"As humans, we can identify galaxies light years away, we can studyparticles smaller than an atom. But we still haven't unlocked the mystery ofthe three pounds of matter that sits between our ears," Obama said.
The president had already announced his decision to launch a program to explorethe brain during his Feb 12 State of the Union address.
Among the scientists in the forefront of the BRAIN Initiative is SpaniardRafael Yuste, a professor of biological science and neuroscience at ColumbiaUniversity in New York.
Yuste was the primary author of a June 2012 article in Neuron magazine in whichhe outlined the initiative on the basis of the work he has carried out over thepast 16 years at Columbia.