a cartoon of a brain with cogs and gears
August 17, 2026
Flexible brain circuits can switch between different tasks
Over a tangle of dark blue neurons, bright orange spots appear along the lengths of some of the axons, highlighting their paths through the tangle
August 13, 2026
Brain circuit keeps tabs on what just happened to aid judgement of what’s happening now
Shanshan Zhang and Rosie Firenze stand before a Massachusetts Life Sciences Center backdrop holding and award certificate
July 29, 2026
With Mass. Women’s Health Award, team will study how Alzheimer’s risk varies with hormone replacement
Emery Brown sits behind his desk in his MIT office. A teddy bear rests nestled among some books on a shelf behind him, just over his right shoulder.
July 20, 2026
MIT names Emery N. Brown an "Institute Professor," its highest faculty honor
A portrait of Susumu Tonegawa in front of a gray background
July 15, 2026
Picower Professor Susumu Tonegawa, renowned molecular biologist and Nobel laureate, dies at 86

Summer students thrive in Picower labs

August 11, 2021
Picower People
Undergraduates from colleges across the country gain scientific training, mentorship and experience as participants in the MIT Summer Research Program

Brain’s ‘memory center’ needed to recognize image sequences but not single sights

July 26, 2021
Research Findings
The visual cortex stores and remembers individual images, but when they are grouped into a sequence, mice can’t recognize that without guidance from the hippocampus

Grant to help scientists test whether brain region is a key locus of learning

July 23, 2021
New Research
Long thought of as a generic alarm system, the locus coeruleus may actually be a sophisticated regulator of learning and behavior, an MIT team posits

Memory making involves extensive DNA breaking

July 6, 2021
Research Findings
To quickly express genes needed for learning and memory, brain cells snap both strands of DNA in many more places and cell types than previously realized, a new study shows

Bear earns amblyopia research award

June 28, 2021
Picower People
RPB Walt and Lilly Disney Award will support efforts to develop new therapeutic approach

As novel sights become familiar, different brain rhythms, neurons take over

June 8, 2021
Research Findings
As ‘visual recognition memory’ emerges in visual cortex, one circuit of inhibitory neurons supplants another and slower neural oscillations prevail

Postdocs earn interdisciplinary Schmidt Science Fellowships

June 3, 2021
Picower People
Selective global honor supports researchers in new scientific pursuits

Speakers describe systemic sources of, prescribe empathic responses to, early life stress

May 17, 2021
Recent Events
At symposium, science and stories converge on harms of early exposure to trauma, racism but also restorative power of understanding, nurturing, and extending opportunity

Picower Institute faculty commit to reducing post-pandemic air travel

May 12, 2021
Picower People
Climate action aims to drive down estimated greenhouse gas emissions to no more than half of pre-pandemic levels

In ‘minibrains,’ hindering key enzyme by different amounts has opposite growth effects

May 10, 2021
Research Findings
Surprising findings can help improve organoid cultures, explain role of GSK3-beta in brain development

New algorithms show accuracy, reliability in gauging unconsciousness under general anesthesia

May 6, 2021
Research Findings
Machine learning software advances could help anesthesiologists optimize drug dose

Anesthesia doesn't simply turn off the brain, it changes its rhythms

April 27, 2021
Research Findings
Simultaneous measurement of neural rhythms and spikes across five brain areas in animals reveals how propofol induces unconsciousness