The Institute of Brain Science and Rehabilitation Medicine (hereinafter referred to as the "Institute of Brain Sciences") is an independent research college established in December 2015 by South China Normal University based on the national "Brain Plan" strategy and facing the academic frontiers and major needs of brain science in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the country. It aims to condense the academic research direction and explore a new model of multidisciplinary integrated development through the research model of "cognition (education)-whole brain-neural circuit-molecular gene mechanism", and establish a national characteristic platform for "multi-scale comprehensive research on brain cognitive function development and educational science". At present, the main research directions are: (1) research on brain development of children and adolescents; (2) the mechanism and diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders in children and adolescents; (3) Multi-level and multidisciplinary research on the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases and mechanisms.
Since 2017, 73 fund projects have been approved, including 24 national funds, 1 key special project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, 1 major project of the social science fund, and 28 provincial and ministerial scientific research projects. Notably, in 2021, it was included as a major cohort research unit of the National Brain Program "Science and Technology Innovation 2030 - Brain Science and Brain-like Research". In 2019, it was approved as the leading unit of the Guangdong Provincial Key Area R&D Program, and in 2020, it was approved as a major project of the National Social Science Fund. Additionally, in 2019, Prof. Wang Jinhui was approved for a key major project of the National Science Fund for Outstanding Young Scholars. At the same time, researchers from the Academy of Brain Sciences have published more than 130 research papers in international high-level journals such as Nature, Molecular Cancer, Science Bulletin, Nature Protocols, and Nature Communications as the first author or corresponding author.
The Institute of Brain Sciences boasts good scientific research hardware facilities and software conditions, and has established a research platform for advanced functions of the human brain (including brain imaging magnetic resonance experiment center, TMS laboratory, EEG laboratory, etc.), an optical microscope research platform, a model animal neurobiology research platform (including genomics laboratory, neural circuit and behavior laboratory, and single-cell network laboratory), and a brain science translational medicine research platform (clinical cooperation with Guangdong Sanjiu Brain Hospital and Shenzhen Longhua District Central Hospital). Currently, there are advanced equipments such as Siemens Prisma 3.0T magnetic resonance imaging equipment, laser confocal microscope, two-photon microscope imaging system, transcranial magnetic stimulator, eye tracker, flow cytometer and other advanced equipment, with a total value of more than 50 million yuan.