Task Force: Cognition and Neuroscience

Executive Summary

Neurological and Cognitive Science represent one of the last great frontiers in research. The human brain is the most complex entity on earth. Georgetown University should play a prominent role in the emerging field of Neuroscience in this century and is well positioned to do so. The success of such a program is essential to maintaining Georgetown’s position as a leading academic institution. Thus, we propose programs that would bring recognition to Georgetown Neuroscience as a Top Ten institution for cognition and the neurosciences in the U.S.

The proposals in this report will substantially enhance the quality of the academic enterprise, including research, teaching, and external funding. They will build synergies based on existing strengths and will allow us to take the requisite steps toward Top Ten recognition. Georgetown already sports leading laboratories and departments ranging from linguistics and laboratory-based scientific language studies to cognitive neuroscience, audition, medicinal chemistry, and neuroregeneration. The university already has impressive interdisciplinary programs in the field, including the Cognitive Science Program at the undergraduate level and the NIH-funded Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience at the graduate level. The proximity of Georgetown’s Main and Medical campuses to one another in one of the most attractive locations in the country, and their proximity to NIH, the FDA, and other government agencies, provide unique opportunities for excellence in research and teaching.

We envision a Georgetown Institute for Brain and Cognition built on the Lombardi Cancer Center model. It would span departments as well as campuses, with a recognized name, a dedicated building, funding streams, business office, and seed money for initiating innovative and, in some cases, high risk/high reward projects.

We propose three programs or areas within the Center. The first will bring cognitive science, computational, and neurobiological approaches to the study of language. It will integrate the current strong but independent strands in the study of language and audition at Georgetown and will provide new insights into the relationship between language and the brain. The second program will focus on cognition and learning throughout the lifespan, with an emphasis on maximizing development and on understanding the disorders and diseases of development and aging. It will bring together existing externally funded research projects and centers on both campuses (e.g., Center for the Study of Learning, Center on Aging) as well as new initiatives (e.g., the Ph.D. in Developmental Science, the increasing emphasis on research in the Department of Neurology). The third program will study a wide-ranging set of pathological and physiological entities, including degeneration and regeneration within the nervous system and neurotransmission.

Spanning much of the above areas will be an emphasis on developing new therapeutic strategies. Georgetown has significant strength in drug discovery. The proposed initiative would kindle the last step to achieve national and international prominence in this area. It would raise the stature of the program and lead to further revenue streams from patents, royalties, and licensing fees, in addition to federal and private funding. In order to achieve these goals, there are significant needs for space, faculty lines, graduate student support, and core research facilities, the latter with personnel support that will allow integrated faculty from different disciplines to interact with each other.

The broad mission of the Georgetown Institute for Brain and Cognition will be to bring Georgetown to the forefront of the study of brain function: the basis of knowledge and language, optimization of cognition throughout the lifespan, and recovery and restoration after brain injury or disease.