Research Topics

As this gallery of featured people and projects illustrates, Picower Institute scientists study brain structure and function at scales from genes and molecules to cells, circuits and regions. They also study the behaviors and cognitive processes that result, and seek to uncover how disruptions at different scales can result in developmental, psychiatric or neurodegenerative disorders. They employ—and often invent—the newest technologies in their work. To learn more about any of these specific areas, click "Research Topics" above, select areas of interest, and you'll find relevant Picower people, discoveries and events.

Picower Professor of Neuroscience

The Tsai lab is interested in elucidating the pathogenic mechanisms underlying neurological disorders that impact learning and memory by taking a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the molecular, cellular, and circuit basis of neurodegenerative disorders.

Research Areas

Alzheimer's dementia, Down syndrome, Single Cell Transcriptomics and Epigenomics, iPSCs, Brain Rhythms, Neuroimmune interactions, myelination, ApoE, lipid metabolism, Neuronal DNA damage

June 16, 2025

Research Feature

Rooted in fundamental curiosity about how the brain works, Picower scientists continue to break new ground in understanding autism and devising treatment strategies

May 12, 2025

Research Findings

MIT study finds that an easily measurable brain wave shift may be a universal marker of unconsciousness under anesthesia

April 28, 2025

Research Findings

Study shows how a dopamine circuit between two brain regions enables mice to extinguish fear after a peril has passed.

April 24, 2025

Research Findngs

Study provides new evidence that sensory stimulation of gamma-frequency brain rhythm may promote broad-based restorative neurological health response.

April 21, 2025

Research Findings

Clinical trial finds several outcomes improved for young children when an anesthesiologist observed their brain waves to guide dosing of sevoflurane during surgery.

April 8, 2025

Research Findings

Upon infection, the C. elegans worm reshuffles the roles of brain cells and flips the functions of some of the chemicals it uses to regulate behavior.

April 7, 2025

Research Findings

New research on a cytokine called IL-17 adds to growing evidence that immune molecules can influence behavior during illness.

February 20, 2025

Research Findings

Enhancing activity of a specific component of ‘NMDA’ receptors normalized protein synthesis, neural activity and seizure susceptibility in hippocampus of fragile X lab mice

January 24, 2025

Research Findings

Tissue processing advance can label proteins at the level of individual cells across whole, intact rodent brains and other large samples just as fast and uniformly as in dissociated single cells.

December 20, 2024

Research Feature

On a biological foundation of ions and proteins, the brain forms, stores, and retrieves memories to inform intelligent behavior

December 10, 2024

Research Findings

Place cells are well known to encode individual locations, but new experiments and analysis indicate that stitching together a “cognitive map” of a whole environment requires a broader ensemble of cells, aided by sleep, to build a richer network over seve

Li-Huei Tsai

Autism advances

Different anesthetics, same result: unconsciousness by shifting brainwave phase

Dopamine signals when a fear can be forgotten

In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity

In kids, EEG monitoring of consciousness safely reduces anesthetic use

A simple animal’s response to sickness highlights the nervous system’s surprising degrees of flexibility

Molecules that fight infection also act on the brain, inducing anxiety or sociability

Study suggests new molecular strategy for treating fragile X syndrome

MIT method enables ultrafast protein labeling of tens of millions of densely packed cells in organ-scale tissues

From Molecules to Memory

Study suggests how the brain, with sleep, learns meaningful maps of spaces