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The NeuroNexus Institute at UMass Chan Medical School

Nexus: a connection, hub or junction, a connected group or series, the center or focus.

  • The NeuroNexus Institute at UMass Chan Medical School brings together basic scientists, clinicians and trainees with the goal of understanding nervous system function and dysfunction, leading to improved diagnosis and treatment of neurological, neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.
  • Institute faculty also teach, supervise, and mentor the next generation of academic and industry leaders, medical practitioners and educators. 
  • Our community also reaches out to increase public awareness of nervous system function and diseases, of fact-based scientific investigation, and to reduce the stigma of neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Our Mission: From Discoveries to Therapies

The mission of the NeuroNexus Institute at UMass Chan Medical School is to catalyze interactions between basic scientists and translational or clinician scientists, forming interdisciplinary teams that tackle innovative projects, achieve breakthroughs in basic neuroscience knowledge, and accelerate development and implementation of innovative therapies to treat neurological conditions.

Our Vision

To integrate our extensive local community of basic and clinical neuroscientists into a hub of interactions, leading to innovation, discovery, and development of new treatments for neurological disorders, and attract diverse funding sources.

Our Approach is to:

  • Understand principles of nervous system physiology
  • Leverage these principles of neuroscience to understand disease mechanisms
  • Accelerate treatments
  • Educate future generations of academic leaders and medical practitioners
  • Impact patient care
  • Reach out and Educate the public of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and beyond

Mission and Vision

Getting Results…
  • Boston Marathon fitting tribute for families touched by ALS

    Boston Marathon a fitting tribute for families touched by ALS

    Sisters Ashley Craig and Lacey Foley joined the UMass ALS Cellucci Fund Boston Marathon team in memory of their grandmother. Brothers Dean and Zack Kennedy, PhD’19, are running on the Jake Kennedy ALS Fund team, in honor of their father.

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  • How frontotemporal dementia changes the brain

    How frontotemporal dementia changes the brain

    In a piece written for The Conversation, Fen-Biao Gao, PhD, talks about how frontotemporal dementia changes the brain and the research that is untangling its genetic causes.

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  • Ana Rita Batista, PhD, (left) instructor in neurology, pictured with Miguel Sena-Esteves, PhD, associate professor of neurology and director of the Translational Institute for Molecular Therapeutics..

    UMass Chan researchers achieve gene therapy milestone for potential Cockayne syndrome treatment

    Researchers working with UMass Chan Medical School’s Translational Institute for Molecular Therapeutics announced progress in developing a vector to deliver gene replacement therapy in mice models with Cockayne syndrome, a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disease that largely affects children and young adults.

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  • Top story: Motor neuron toxin associated with ALS identified by UMass Chan investigators

    Top story: Motor neuron toxin associated with ALS identified by UMass Chan investigators

    Top story: An international team of investigators has discovered that an inorganic polyphosphate released by nerve cells known as astrocytes in people with ALS and frontotemporal dementia contributes to the motor neuron death that is the signature of these diseases.

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