Programs

Catalyst Awards

Stimulating fresh perspectives to uncover how the brain ages and remains resilient.

  1. Catalyst Awards support researchers with $500,000 over two years in developing innovative approaches to uncover new insights into cognitive health and the prevention or reversal of neurodegenerative disease. 

  2. Cryogenic electron tomography (cryoET) image (left) and AI-based segmentation (right) of subcellular features in a human fibroblast, used to investigate the molecular architecture underlying neurodegenerative diseases.
    Cathy Hou, Pingting Liu, Gong-Her Wu, Ching-Chieh Chou, Eli Andino-Frydman, Grier Stretch, and Sanket Gupte from the Chiu, Frydman, and Yeung-Levy labs

“After decades of darkness and only a few clues, the discovery of clear genetic risk factors and biomarkers [of neurodegeneration] now allows us to formulate compelling hypotheses. Thanks to this Catalyst Award from the Knight Initiative, our team is now able to shed light on key mechanisms of how the brain fends off ongoing pressures to decline.”

Marius Wernig

Funded Catalyst Award projects