Brain power meets philanthropic power

Thanks to our partnership with the Endowment for Neurosciences, two promising young scientists aim to advance what we know about the brain and neurological disorders.

For more than 40 years, the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) has awarded grants to U.S.-Israel scientific partnerships, paving the way for transformative breakthroughs, and helping Israel become one of the world’s great scientific hubs.

There are many times, however, when even the most promising scientific proposals face the possibility of going unfunded because the number of outstanding applicants outweighs available funds.

Joshua L. Plotkin

Joshua L. Plotkin

That’s where support from the generous philanthropic community in the United States comes in. We work hard to match highly-qualified scientific projects with private philanthropic resources. One of these trusted philanthropic partners is the Endowment for Neurosciences (ENS). Recently, the ENS approved a $50,000 gift for two young scientists whose work could bring about drastic changes in our understanding about neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The two scientists, Joshua L. Plotkin and Joshua A. Goldberg, are focusing on the brain’s ability to initiate behaviors that are beneficial and appropriate, and suppress those that are not. This is referred to as “action selection.” This is one of the most important jobs of the brain, and when it’s not done properly, neurological disorders can occur.

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