The center will explore a range of topics from studies of mice on how genes contribute to memory and developmental and perceptual plasticity to studies in humans on cognitive plasticity. These gifts from two prominent foundations recognize Columbia's growing strengths in neuroscience and signify an investment in the enormous potential this field holds for human health. These innovative new programs will bridge the techniques and insights of molecular biology to those of cognitive psychology, enhancing a powerful new approach to cognitive neuroscience we have initiated at Columbia University, known as molecular cognition. The new programs are designed to expand this novel approach to the brain and behavior, which Columbia has pioneered in the past few years, from studies in mice to non-human primates to human clinical studies. To understand the brain, both as the organ of mental function and as a target for disease, we need to understand at the cellular and the molecular level the behavioral and systems function of the brain in both animal models and humans.
Faculty participating in the two programs include preeminent leaders in the field.
The faculty members on the Morningside campus include Lynn Cooper and Janet Metcalfe, professors of psychology, who have pioneered the study of memory in humans, and Darcy Kelley, Martin Chalfie and Eduardo Macagno, professors of biological sciences, who study elementary components of behavior in simple animals. The Keck Center will use existing space and an additional 4,000 square feet in the New York State Psychiatric Institute's building at C-PMC and 3,000 square feet in the biology and psychology departments at Morningside.