Get Involved: Help Us Write the History of Neuroscience

We have seen remarkable progress recently in treatments for individuals who have been diagnosed with heart disease, cancer and infectious diseases. The nervous system presents the next frontier. We still have much to learn about the cause, progression and treatment of neurological diseases.

Neurons provide us our total experience of the world: what we sense, who we are, how we learn and interact. Learning about the nervous system teaches us about how we experience life. When a person’s nervous system is not functioning well, the effects on patients and their families can be devastating.

Finding out what steers the nervous system toward disease is the task of faculty and staff of the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology. The Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology comprises a world-class team of dedicated scientists in both the basic sciences (understanding how nerve cells function) and clinical sciences (how to apply basic understanding towards the development of drugs and procedures to use in clinical trials).

Research projects currently underway in our department are designed to discover treatments and cures for: epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, learning and memory disorders, drug addiction, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), deafness and other hearing disorders, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, mental retardation and more.

The cost of carrying out research into these neurological disorders is steadily increasing. Unfortunately the financial support provided by the federal government and by the California state governments to individual researchers is not keeping pace. Private foundations are also trying to do more, with less of their own funding.

For example, one hour using the electron microscope to identify seizure-producing tissue will cost $50 to $100. An antibody to identify the amyloid protein of Alzheimer’s disease costs about $300. A modern fluorescence microscope costs over $25,000. A single MRI or PET scan can cost over $1000. These costs add up quickly.

Annual operating costs of neuroscience labs at UCI run several hundreds of thousands of dollars in direct costs for materials, overhead and people.

We should also consider the cost of training the next generation of neuroscientists. The annual cost of training one student is over $35,000; students are needed for the tremendous amount of work they do in labs today… and we and our families will need their discoveries, insights and cures, tomorrow.

The discrepancy between the costs of doing cutting edge science, and the support provided by the usual funding agencies, presents an important opportunity to individual donors.

You can make an important and tangible contribution to neuroscience research. Each experiment a scientist designs, executes, interprets and publishes, becomes a part of history. Join us in writing new chapters in history; consider making a donation to the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology. Donors will have the opportunity to meet with researchers and keep abreast of the progress of their funded projects. Help us, help you; become a partner in writing the history of neuroscientific research.

There are several ways to donate and all donations are welcome. Instructions for online donation are listed below as well as a phone number to ask any further questions:

1. Visit the UCI Giving Site here.
2. A page will load titled “Give to UCI”.
3. The drop down menus are already pre-selected to direct your donation to the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, (called the Anatomy General Fund).
4. Click the “Next Page” button at the bottom of the page and follow the rest of the prompts to complete your donation.

If you have any questions, please contact: 949-824-0142.