NINDS at 50: Celebrating 50 Years of Brain Research Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

The National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness (NINDB) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) were not quite twins, but they were born only a year apart and they were tethered by a conjoint intramural research program.

NINDS has been one of the most powerful motors that pulled and pushed the rise of modern neuroscience. This book was written in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the institute. Its history and the history of neurology and neuroscience are essentially one. Well written, and lavishly accompanied by photographs that span the last half-century, this book will be a welcome addition to the library of everyone in brain research and the clinical neurosciences.

The first half is a history of the Institute, starting with the enabling legislation and concentrating on the people who made NINDS a powerhouse of neuroscience research The cast includes administrators, legislators, scientists and two unique women, Mary Lasker and Florence Mahoney. Against this background, the leaders of the intramural program provide the history of major contributions. The much larger extramural program encompasses biomedical research centers throughout the United States. NINDS has been a major source of training for basic scientists in neurosciences and the single major source in developing clinical investigation. In the process modern scientific neurology and neurosurgery have been created. Oral histories provide human terms for the history.

More than half of the book is devoted to biographies of scientists whose contributions earned special recognition by Lasker Awards or Nobel Prizes. Among them are Kety, Louis Sokoloff, Roscoe Brady, Nancy Wexler, Carleton Gajdusek, Stanley Prusiner, Julius Axelrod, Arvid Carlsson, Paul Greengard and Eric Kandel. Together, their stories provide a history of scientific advance.

Birth First steps Development Directors of NINDS The scientific directors Intramural program Extramural program Training Big tickets: collaborative and field studies Decade of the brain: David Mahoney and the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives The voluntaries Five Lasker awards and six Nobels Seymour S. Kety, M.D. Louis Sokoloff, M.D. Nancy S. Wexler, Ph.D. Roscoe O. Brady, M.D. D. Carleton Gajdusek, M.D. Stanley B. Prusiner, M.D. Celebrating the synapse Julius Axelrod, Ph.D. Arvid Carlsson, M.D. Paul Greengard, Ph.D. Eric R. Kandel, M.D. One brain science, genomics, the clinical neurosciences, and the future of NINDS A neuroscience timeline Fifty years of advances in neuroscience. Annotation "NINDS has been one of the most powerful motors that pulled and pushed the rise of modern neuroscience. Its history and the history of neurology and neuroscience are essentially one. Well written, and lavishly accompanied by photographs that span the last half-century, this book will be a welcome addition to the library of everyone in neurology, neurosurgery, and all areas of the neurosciences."--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved This laudatory history recounts the creation and development of NINDS, discusses is contributions to the field, profiles its award- winning researchers, considers prospects for the future, and situates the entire story in the context of half a century's scientific advances. Rowland is a neurologist, formerly associated with Columbia University. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)