2022 - 23 Impact Report

As I ramped up back-to-school preparations this year my son asked me, “Mom how many people do you think you’ve helped in your job?” Funny he should ask, because this was a year we at DIBS turned a lot of attention to this very question: Who do we help and how do we measure its impact to hone our work?

DIBS has long helped faculty in their work by convening researchers and scholars dispersed across Departments and Schools. Our signature seed funding for innovative research projects ignited faculty collaborations across brain sciences, generating new tools and interventions, and training new generations of scholars.

We are now perfectly positioned to bring the work of our scientists out of the labs to expand access for more scholars, learners, and stakeholders. With a generous new gift from Ron and Beth Ostrow, DIBS is literally bringing our work to light. By showcasing our knowledge on immersive digital media installations and equipping new teams to explore the questions and ideas these images inspire, the new laboratory for brain exploration will ensure Duke neuroscience realizes its full impact on other fields and lives.

In addition to making the Cube a true portal to neuroscience, DIBS is also helping inspire young people to pursue careers in neurosciences in another way: by funding teaching by faculty from clinical departments, like Len White. This year, Dr. White’s impact on student’s lives was honored by a donation that will fund a new undergraduate neuroscience teaching lab. DIBS support for Nicole Schramm-Sapyta’s research mentoring has brought our students directly to the frontlines of today’s crisis in mental health care, as detailed in the Fall 2023 DukeMag special issue Defending the Brain. Ensuring that undergraduates have access to faculty from across Duke is essential for the multiplier effect of these cross-model educational programs.

With a new NIH grant awarded this summer for graduate training, we are tackling the question of measuring our impact head on. With this funding, we will quantify the impact of a new training model for PhD students, measuring not only achievement but also student wellbeing and flourishing. Science is about learning to see through our biases to grasp the world as it is - a key resilience skill. The simple idea behind the grant is that learning to be a scientist should make our PhD students’ lives better, in addition to giving them skills to find solutions that are useful to others. We expect that applying what we know about brains will help our students make better use of this hard experience -- and also make a bigger impact on the world.

In all of our activities over the past year, we have brought our attention to the goal of amplifying our impact by expanding access to both the products and process of our science.

I hope you will explore the report below to learn about all our partners in this work, and the new ways DIBS is connecting even more minds to advance neuroscience and improve lives.

Yours in wonder,

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R. Alison Adcock, MD, PhD

Interim Director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

A new philanthropic gift from Ronald and Beth Ostrow and family has enabled an exciting art+science initiative at DIBS that will profoundly transform The Cube, inside and out. The feature media installation will turn the glass façade of our headquarters into a dynamic display of imagery from brain research labs, canvases, data sets, and more. Other planned installations include digital anatomy tables, a 3D modelling lab, and augmented reality stations. These tools will let us experience the molecules, cells, and circuits of the brain as expansive spaces and structures, offering new perspectives and insights to both experts and learners.

This new brain exploration lab has already engaged a core team of faculty collaborators from Visual Studies (Bill Seaman and Augustus Wendell) and Biomedical Engineering (Cameron McIntyre), in partnership with the Center for Computational Thinking.

Duke’s unmatched scholarly strengths in neuroscience expertise and computational innovation, including computer vision, generative art, and engineering, create the ideal incubator for re-envisioning how we represent the brain. This initiative will pave the way for making a wealth of data yielded by Duke brain research available for computational training and innovation for new student experiences, including Bass Connections and Brain+ teams, and will offer unprecedented opportunities for collaboration, education, and awe.