Penn Team Awarded $22.5 Million to Develop Treatment for Memory Loss

A team of scientists and physicians at the University of Pennsylvania will lead a four-year effort worth as much as $22.5 million to develop next-generation technologies to restore memory function in people who suffer from memory loss due to disease or traumatic injury. The project, which is in support of President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative, will combine research on the basic mechanisms of memory function with the development of systems designed to electrically stimulate discrete regions of the brain.

“Biomarkers of good memory function will guide our ability to stimulate the brain to synthesize patterns of neural activity conducive to proper memory function,” Kahana says. “To accomplish this we must first map the neural mechanisms of human memory in both time and space. By deciphering the unique spatiotemporal maps of good memory function in each participant, we can determine how to use brain stimulation to gently coax brain activity out of dysfunctional states and towards optimal ones.”

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Arts & Sciences News

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Fourteen from Penn Arts & Sciences Receive Fulbrights for 2025-26 Academic Year

They will conduct research, pursue graduate degrees, or teach English in places including Thailand, Austria, Indonesia, Moldova, and many other places.

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Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw Named James and Nan Wagner Farquhar Professor of History of Art

Shaw’s main areas of research include portraiture and issues of representation in the art of the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean, from the 1500s to the present day.

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Hanming Fang Named Inaugural Norman C. Grosman Professor of Economics

An applied microeconomist who integrates rigorous modeling with data analysis, Fang’s research within the field of public economics focuses on health insurance and healthcare markets.

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Xi Song Named Inaugural Schiffman Family Presidential Associate Professor of Sociology

Song’s research interests include social mobility, occupations, Asian Americans, population studies, and quantitative methodology.

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Julie Nelson Davis Named Paul F. Miller, Jr. and E. Warren Shafer Miller Professor of History of Art

Davis specializes in the arts and material cultures of 18th- and 19th-century Japan, with a focus on prints, paintings, and illustrated books.

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Justin Khoury Named Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Physics and Astronomy

Khoury’s research interests lie at the intersection of particle physics and cosmology.

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