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Mission Statement

The Mission of the Cajal Neuroscience Research Center (CNRC) is to facilitate neuroscience research at the University of
Texas at San Antonio by strengthening the research environment. With collaborative efforts at nearby institutions, the CNRC
will become the focal point of neuroscience research in South Texas. In addition, the CNRC will have a positive impact on
the number and role of minority scientists in the technological advances of the 21st century and beyond.
Center established to Study Neurocomputation
by Roxanne Llewellyn

UTSA is establishing a center to strengthen neuroscience research efforts and
opportunities, both within the University and with other institutions in South Texas.

Funded by a five-year grant of nearly $6.3 million from the National Institutes of
Health National Center for Research Resources, the Cajal Neuroscience Research Center will promote interaction between neuroscientists and computer scientists in the emerging discipline of computational neuroscience.

Neurocomputation involves high-performance computing in the mapping and
analysis or the brain's response to stimuli.

Specifically, the researchers will look for ways to better understand and
mathematically replicate the brain's problem-solving circuitry through computer
simulations and visualizations.

The preclinical research will help neuroscientists predict how the brain reacts in
certain congenital, diseased or injury states.

The effects of the aging process and Alzheimer's disease on the brain are among
those earmarked for study.

This knowledge can be used in the development of drugs or other therapeutic
interventions for treatment for brain malfunctions or injury.

The Cajal Center puts UTSA among the ranks of Yale University, the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology.

The NIH grant will provide for additional core facilities and faculty-including the
endowed Roland K. and Jane W. Blumberg Professorship in Biosciences, a
tenured position for a senior neurobiologist with research experience in
computational neurobiology who will play a major role in the center's development.

A final facet of the CNRC is the implementation of a year-long neuroscience
seminar for all participating scientists featuring prominent experts in the field, many of whom will also serve on the center's External Advisory Committee and act as mentors to junior faculty.

Spanish neuroanatomist Santiago Ramon y Cajal's 1906 Nobel Prize portrait

The Cajal Neuroscience Research Center is named for Spanish neuroanatomist Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-1934).

Widely held as the founder of neuroscience, Cajal shared the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for setting forth the Neuron Doctrine. The doctrine describes how the brain's cells communicate, a key concept of neuroscience theory.

"Cajal's work stands as an inspiration to neuroscientists of the future," says Joe L. Martinez, Jr., Ewing Halsell Professor of Neurobiology.

"His findings remain essential to our understanding of the brain, and his work is still referred to more than that of many other scientists in the field."

His drawings of the neuron are reproduced in the foyers of the Biosciences Building. Martinez says that the center is the third in the world named after the esteemed Scientist. Other Cajal Institutes are located in Mexico City and Madrid, Spain.

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