Welcome to the 2025 Edition of MasterMinds
Reflecting on our last trip around the sun, I marvel at the people and events that have impacted the faculty, trainees and staff of the Florida Atlantic's Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute (SNBI) this past year.
Corrine Lasmézas, DVM, Ph.D., joined us as the inaugural director of the David and Lynn Nicholson Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research. She will host internationally recognized scientist Sir John Hardy, Ph.D., for grand opening ceremonies in March, formally launching a collective fight against Alzheimer’s disease and other devastating brain disorders. With a $2 million philanthropic gift, this visionary center is poised to make great strides in moving from molecule to medicine.
At the heart of this initiative is an interdisciplinary approach bringing together world-class scientists, clinicians and engineers, to unravel the complex mysteries of neurodegenerative diseases and overcome barriers to cures. The work at the Nicholson Center follows a path blazed by decades of research yet charts its own course, embracing innovative hypotheses and technologies to change the landscape of brain health for those dealing with disorders that rob too many people of movements and memories.
One promising frontier for treatment of brain disorders is an implementation of MRI-couple low intensity, focused ultrasound aimed at permitting greater brain access of novel therapeutics, otherwise rebuffed by the fortress walls of the blood-brain barrier. In partnership with Insightec, a medical device company, researchers from the Institute, including Gregg Fields, Ph.D., vice president of research, are racing against time to open new paths for improved treatments.
Other new technologies are transforming our scientists’ work, including the addition of a Miltenyi Ultramicrope Blaze platform that allows for full 3D scanning at high-speed of intact animal brains, using advanced lightsheet imaging technology. A second addition to the core is a Bruker GeoMx Spatial Profiler, which allows the messages of the genome to be sampled at single-cell resolution without removing these cells from their native environment. Finally, the arrival of a GE 3T Premier MRI Scanner, housed at the new Florida Atlantic MRI Research and Discovery Center, Boca Raton campus, helps scientists understand the complexities of the human brain, at rest and in action.
Mature (ahem) neuroscientists recognize the spirit, energy and insights of younger scientists. As we welcomed the third wave of aspiring brain scientists to the Neuroscience Graduate Program (NGP) and now recruit the fourth, it is exciting to see a rich pool of talent join the battle to reveal the mysteries of the mind.
Two trainees also became the first NGP students to defend their dissertation proposals, and are now racing ahead to make discoveries that will change lives. Being a graduate student in Palm Beach County represents a significant economic challenge for students living and working here, and we are thankful for the supplemental support generously provided by Anna Ewing and John Capotosto, as well as from the June Jones Foundation, to offset these costs and minimize time away from research to teach.
In addition, MobileMinds, launched by SNBI’s ASCEND Program (Advancing Science to Community Engagement through Neuroscience Discovery), brought brain science and health lessons to school systems, community centers and even the local mall. Supported by a gift from the Per an Astrid Heidenreich Foundation, as well as funds from the Sharron and Joseph Ashby Hubert Fund of the Community Foundation of Broward, our team is turning on the lights for youth just now thinking about their future.
Lastly,Brainy Days, a program funded by Palm Health Foundation, hostedInsights at the Institute: Creativity and the Bipolar Brain, an art exhibition donated by Dusty and Joyce Sang, co-directors of the Ryan Licht Sang Bipolar Foundation, aimed at reducing the stigma that keeps so many in the shadows, undetected and untreated.
The SNBI team is excited for the future, and as we continue to advance brain science and education at Florida Atlantic, we gather the insights and inspiration needed to go “once more unto the breach.” I hope you will enjoy the stories of our efforts and wish upon us success for the coming year.
Randy D. Blakely, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Florida Atlantic Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute
Director, Neuroscience Ph.D. Program
David J. S. Nicholson Distinguished Professor in Neuroscience
Professor of Biomedical Science,
Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine