The MIND X-CHANGE

There is little that plagues society today that is not intertwined with neuroscience. From gun violence, deaths of despair from addiction or suicide, and the debilitating impact of long-CoVid, the root causes, as well as consequences, lie in the brain. Brain disorders beginning in the earliest years of life, such as autism spectrum disorders, learning and speech disabilities and schizophrenia place enormous burdens on individuals and their families. Neurodegeneration and dementia—from Alzheimer’s, stroke, epilepsy, auto-immune disorders and brain cancers—likewise rob individuals of their personhood and devastate their caretakers. While everyone is touched by these conditions, not everyone is touched equally. Relative risks, outcomes and access to care are all impacted by gender, age, race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status.

Solving these problems requires a diversity of perspectives to achieve a sophisticated understanding of the brain and its vulnerabilities and resiliencies in context.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) in downtown Baltimore is a leader in neuroscience research in a geographic region with tremendous breadth and depth of academic, government, and industry resources, but also one with tremendous social, racial and health-related disparities. This includes disparities in the access universities have to critical research resources. Moreover, despite the relative wealth of our State, Maryland ranks in the bottom 20 in multiple metrics of healthcare and educational disparities (United Health Foundation, Rankings 2021). Recognizing the need to harness our strength in the neurosciences, the University of Maryland - Medicine Institute for Neuroscience Discovery (UM-MIND) was established to coalesce and advance the dispersed expertise in foundational and clinically-applied neuroscience on the Baltimore campus. However, to genuinely affect change we need to do more and engage our long-standing regional public partners. 

To realize this mission, UM-MIND has created the MIND X-CHANGE, a cross (X)-disciplinary, X-training, X-institutional research and core facility that will create new access to clinically-applied and foundational neuroscience to a coalition of regional partners. 

The MIND X-CHANGE will create access to current technology and accelerate discovery through three new core facilities focused on: 1) super-resolution microscopy, 2) easily accessible CRISPR gene editing technology and 3) a multimedia studio. By promoting the research success of faculty and trainees under-represented or under-resourced in science and medicine, we will reduce educational and career development disparities endemic to the Baltimore region and the nation, an essential step toward reducing health disparities. 

Our Partner Institutions

The MIND X-CHANGE collaborative is a function of our mutual commitment to neuroscience, existence of faculty that have both the drive and sophistication to exploit the leading-edge technologies of the new core facilities, and our long standing relationships that have created a culture of mutual trust, understanding and cooperation. Partner institutions alongside UM-MIND include:

• Morgan State University (MSU)
• University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
• Maryland Psychiatric Research Center (MPRC)
• University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP)