The mission of the Brown Center for Translational Neuroscience (CTN) is to advance knowledge of the pathogenesis of brain disease and to translate this knowledge into improved clinical outcomes for families affected by brain disease. Brain diseases, such as neurodevelopmental disorders (including autism, intellectual disabilities, or epilepsy), neuropsychiatric disorders, and neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, affect millions of people worldwide. 

The central goal of CTN is to harness the power of human genetics and genomics to treat brain diseases. Based on the belief that underlying mechanisms are often shared across seemingly diverse disorders and advanced molecular methods may be applied across disorders, CTN’s research also studies neurogenetic disorders and molecular therapeutics, such as gene therapy.

In order to achieve its mission, the CTN established four primary objectives are: 

• Objective 1: To coalesce multidisciplinary teams that bridge campus-based basic science researchers and hospital-based clinical neuroscience programs.
• Objective 2: To establish a shared infrastructure for translational research.
• Objective 3: To train students and physician-scientists in translational science.
• Objective 4: To enhance community engagement in translational neuroscience through family participation in patient-oriented research and scientific symposia.