Breakthrough Discoveries

Multi-color 3-photon deep imaging is published in Science Advances

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abf3531

New imaging technique sheds light on adult zebrafish brain

https://neurotech.cornell.edu/files/2020/05/a.mp4 Cornell scientists have developed a new technique for imaging a zebrafish’s brain at all stages of its development, which could have implications for the study of human brain disorders, including autism. See full...

Gerald Rubin to speak at Cornell Neurotech seminar, Sept. 24, 2021 4PM

The  annual Cornell Neurotech Mong Family Foundation Seminar will feature Gerald M. Rubin. The seminar will be held in G10 Biotechnology on Sept. 23, 2021 at 4pm. The seminar title will be: Generating and using wiring diagrams of brain: Lessons from the Drosophila...

NeuroNex—a Radical Collaboration

An engineer and a neuroscientist gathered a group of Cornell scientists and engineers to tackle a frontier of science—the brain. Now, they form a hub. by Jackie Swift, CornellResearch Read the article and learn more...

$9M grant will create neurotech research hub at Cornell

Aug. 1, 2017 By Syl Kacapyr for the Cornell Chronicle As neuroscientists examine challenging questions about the complexities of the central nervous system, new tools to be developed at Cornell will provide them with an unprecedented glimpse into the inner workings of...

3-photon imaging of mouse brain activity is published in Nature Methods

  Dimitre G Ouzounov, Tianyu Wang, et al.  record spontaneous activity from up to 150 neurons in the hippocampal stratum pyramidale at ~1-mm depth within an intact mouse brain. Using three-photon microscopy at 1,300-nm excitation, the authors of a recently...

Revealing a circuit in the brain responsible for a behavioral choice

Brains are used to make behavioral choices about what to do next. Animals with two sides, including humans, constantly make choices about whether to respond to the left or right. Do they look left, or look right; turn left or right; reach left or right? Surprisingly,...

Novel imaging of the degeneration underlying illnesses such as multiple sclerosis to allow for faster development of treatment strategies

Normal brain function depends on wrappings of nerve cells by myelin which enhances the speed of conduction of electrical information in the brain and spinal cord.  Disruptions of myelin are the source of the devastating movement problems with vision and movement in...

A new tool probes the inner workings of the brain

The application of three-photon microscopy allows for the visualization of the normal structure and function of single neurons deep in the living brain of mice, one of the most important model animals in neuroscience.  Watching structure and function over time is...

About Us

Cornell Neurotech, a joint initiative between the Colleges of Arts & Sciences and Engineering, launched in 2015 thanks to a multimillion dollar seed grant from the Mong Family Foundation, through Stephen Mong ’92, MEN ’93, MBA ’02.

Cornell Neurotech is developing technologies and powerful new tools needed to reveal the inner workings of the brain, with a particular focus on how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought. Solving the mystery of how circuits in the brain produce behavior, thoughts and feelings is one of the most important scientific frontiers in the 21st century, providing the foundation for understanding such profound behavioral deficits as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and depression. Making headway on these problems requires major technological innovation and its application to reveal the basics of brain organization and its function and dysfunction.  Cornell Neurotech aims to fill that gap by developing and applying technologies emerging at the interfaces between physics, engineering, chemistry, computer science and the life sciences.

The Cornell Neurotech collaboration grew from grassroots faculty interest, spearheaded by Joseph Fetcho, a professor of neurobiology and behavior and Chris Xu, a professor of applied and engineering physics, that received initial support from the Kavli Institute and its director, Paul McEuen. The announcement of  President Obama’s BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative to accelerate the development and application of neurotechnologies led the faculty group to turn their grassroots effort into a more formal program. Eventually funded by the Mong Family Foundation, the group launched the cross-campus Cornell Neurotech collaboration. Xu and Fetcho were named co-directors.

Call for Proposals due June 1, 2024

Events

NeuroNex Technology Conference

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Wednesday, July 18 and Thursday, July 19, 2018
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

The goal of the NSF NeuroNex initiative is to clear major technological hurdles in order to better study and understand the brain. Thank you to those who who made the 2018 NeuroNex Technology Conference possible. Please stay tuned for next year’s details. Co-organizers: Chris Xu, Joe Fetcho, Mert Sabuncu, Chris Schaffer, and Nilay Yapici. For details please visit: http://neuronex.cornell.edu