Mission Statement

The Neuroscience Institute at UTHSC is supported by the Neuroscience Center of Excellence, one of several Centers of Excellence established by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission in 1985. Our mission to develop and support multidisciplinary research and training in neuroscience. We feature basic science and clinical members spanning 10 departments, and foster neuroscience research through support of neuroscience track graduate students and postdocs, the Neuroscience Imaging Center and Behavioral Core, a robust seminar series, and start-up packages for new faculty.

The brain is the final frontier of biology. Scientific inquiry has produced remarkably detailed knowledge of the physical world and much of the life sciences, including details of the human genome. However, our knowledge of the brain is far from complete. The nature and mechanisms of consciousness, thought, perception, learning, memory and many diseases of the nervous system are poorly understood. Neuroscience is now at an exciting threshold of discovery and unprecedented growth. The resulting explosion of information is rapidly increasing our understanding of the basic mechanisms of brain structure and function. This emerging knowledge is helping us discover effective treatments and even cures for some neurological diseases.