1995 to present

Into the New Century

The breadth of collaboration within the MHRI’s expanded focus continues at the dawn of the 21st century, driving advances ranging from genetic and molecular to behavioral and clinical.
Appointed in 1995, the leadership team of Drs. Huda Akil and Stanley J. Watson, Jr. guided MNI forward, emphasizing building new structures and teams to support basic and translational studies in the age of neuro-genomics and neuro-informatics.

Two important developments impacted the Institute during this period. One strengthened its intramural impact, while the other significantly raised its national profile.

First, a greater number of secondary faculty appointments improved the link between the Institute, the UM Medical School’s clinical and basic science departments, and the UM College of Literature, Sciences, and the Arts.

Second, MHRI leadership played a pivotal role in establishing the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Research Consortium.

In 2005, when the Institute celebrated its 50th anniversary, the Regents of the University of Michigan changed its name to the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute (MBNI) to better reflect the evolution of its collaborative research mission and its cornerstone research in neural organization and signaling and the dynamically changing brain across the lifespan.

This marked the first time a university research unit used the term ‘neuroscience’ in its name. The term, believed to have been first coined at U-M by Ralph Waldo Gerard, underscores a commitment to linking the molecular and behavioral aspects of brain research.

Neuroscience is highly interdisciplinary and requires approaches ranging from molecular mechanisms to behavioral and social analyses. It demands state-of-the-art technologies, novel tools, and computational and imaging power.

The MBNI served for over 60 years as one of the key nodes of neuroscience research on campus, with seminal contributions to neuroscience, distinguished national and international leadership, and important partnerships both within Michigan Medicine and across colleges. Yet, over time, it became clear that a campus like the University of Michigan - which combines schools and colleges that span all levels of human knowledge - presents a unique setting for addressing the needs of a powerful and far-reaching neuroscience initiative. The Institute and our colleagues in U-M’s greater neuroscience community have made innumerable seminal contributions to the field. Today, the depth and breadth of neuroscience research and training at Michigan can currently be found in seven different schools and colleges, 27 departments, and 15 institutes and centers.

To that end, the UM Medical School Leadership sought to re-invest, coalesce, and unite the large neuroscience community across the University. The initial step toward developing a robust, cross-campus neuroscience institute began on December 5th, 2019, with the UM Board of Regents approving a new, more encompassing name for the Institute, the Michigan Neuroscience Institute (MNI). Drs. Akil and Watson served as the co-Directors from January 2020 - 2021.

The MNI harnesses those highly interdisciplinary collaborations, creating new synergies, enabling groundbreaking discoveries, and enhancing Michigan Neuroscience’s visibility and impact.

Institute Leadership

2023-present

Ravi Allada, M.D.

Executive Director, Michigan Neuroscience Institute (MNI)
Theophile Raphael, M.D., Collegiate Professor of Neurosciences

Dr. Ravi Allada joined the Michigan Neuroscience Institute on September 1, 2023, as the institute's new Executive Director. He comes to MNI from Northwestern University, where Dr. Allada served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurobiology, Professor in the Department of Pathology, and Associate Director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology for 23 years.

2021-23

Henry Paulson

Henry Paulson, M.D., Ph.D.

Henry L. Paulson is the Interim Co-Director and Research Professor of the Michigan Neuroscience Institute and the Lucile Groff Professor of Neurology. He also directs the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) and co-directs the U-M Protein Folding Diseases Initiative.

Dr. Paulson’s medical degree and doctorate in Cell Biology are from Yale University. After completing a neurology residency and neurogentics/movement disorders fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania, he spent 10 years in the Neurology Department at the University of Iowa. Dr. Paulson joined the U-M faculty in 2007.

Dr. Paulson's research and clinical interests concern the causes and treatment of age-related neurodegenerative diseases, with an emphasis on polyglutamine diseases, Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. In 1997, his lab described abnormal protein aggregates in the polyglutamine diseases, which now are recognized as a pathological hallmark in this important class of inherited diseases. Using test tube, cell-based and animal models, he has contributed to advances in the understanding of various neurodegenerative diseases. His lab also has helped pioneer the use of gene silencing methods as potential therapy for the many neurological disorders caused by toxic mutant genes.

 

Shelly B. Flagel, Ph.D.

Shelly Flagel served as MNI's Interim Co-Director from 2021-23 along with Hank Paulson. She is an MNI Research Professor with appointments as a Professor of Psychiatry and an Adjunct Professor of Psychology. Dr. Flagel is a proud alumnus of the University of Michigan, having earned her B.S. in Biopsychology here, and her Ph.D. from the Neuroscience Graduate Program.

Dr. Flagel’s research focuses on understanding the psychological and neurobiological factors that contribute to individual differences in reward learning and susceptibility to addiction. Her work has identified key mechanisms and circuits that render some individuals more vulnerable to addiction. Ongoing research in the Flagel Lab aims elucidate the neural processes that contribute to maladaptive behaviors characteristic of psychiatric symptomatology. Animal models are used in conjunction with human subjects in hopes of identifying novel targets for the treatment of psychiatric conditions.

1995 - 2021

Stanley Watson, M.D., Ph.D.

Stanley J. Watson, Jr., M.D., Ph.D.

Both a basic neuroanatomist and a board-certified psychiatrist, Watson was a Co-Director and Research Professor of the MNI and the Ralph Waldo Gerard Professor of Neurosciences in the U-M Department of Psychiatry. He made numerous significant contributions to our understanding of functional and molecular neuroanatomy and the synthesis of neuroanatomy and molecular neurobiology.

The Watson laboratory has generated tools and strategies for more sophisticated studies of brain function in well-defined circuits, including the anatomy and regulation of specific genes in emotional and motivated behavior. For example, Watson was part of the team that developed in situ hybridization, a technique used to study changes in gene expression and regulation in brain circuits coinciding with behaviors – now a standard tool in neuroscience labs.

Huda Akil

Huda Akil, Ph.D.

Huda Akil, Ph.D. is a Co-Director and Research Professor of the MNI and the Gardner C. Quarton Distinguished University Professor of Neurosciences in the U-M Department of Psychiatry. Her laboratory focuses on understanding the neurobiology of emotions, including pain, anxiety, depression and substance abuse. Critical discoveries in the Akil lab have advanced our understanding of the role of endorphins in modulating pain and stress, and of the interplay between addiction and the neurobiology of mood.

Akil’s research portfolio is at the same time both basic and highly translational. For example, her groundbreaking studies of the role of endorphins and endorphin receptors in pain and stress responsiveness provided the first physiological evidence of the role of endogenous opioids in the brain. This work demonstrated that endorphins are activated by stress, and that they cause pain inhibition, a phenomenon her lab termed Stress-Induced Analgesia.

A major focus of her current research is the development of animal models to understand the genetic and developmental bases of differences in temperament, and the implications of these inborn differences for anxiety, depression and substance abuse.