NEUROANATOMICAL COLLECTIONS RECEIVES RESEARCH GRANT    Archie Fobbs, Dr. John Allman, Dr. Kebreten Manaye of Howard University, and Dr. Julie Korenburg hold one of many slides they will be using for their research. Archie Fobbs, curator of the Neuroanatomical Division of the National Museum of Health and Medicine along with Dr. John Allman of the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Kebreten Manaye of Howard University, and Dr. Julie Korenburg of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have been awarded a $1.8 million research grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation, to be used for brain research over the next three years. The grant will be used to fund new research in neuroscience on a computer imaging technique that focuses on the social and emotional cognitions of the brain. The research team, led by the principal investigator, Dr. Allman, will explore the neural circuitry involved in social emotions and cognition in human and non-human primates. The team believes that their research will be fundamentally useful in determining how dysfunctions arise in the neural circuitry for social emotions/cognition, and from that they will be able to better interpret the pathological variations in humans. The variations for study include autism, depression and fronto-temporal dementia. “We truly believe that this research will open doors for a new way of studying the brain and learning more about social cognition,” said Fobbs. The National Museum of Health and Medicine’s Neuroanatomical Collections will provide slides from its Yakovlev-Haleem Collection of more than 1,500 serially sectioned slides to all team members throughout the course of the study. The team plans to use the slides showing the post-natal brain development series and will also use them as a source of control brains for the autism study. Each member of the research will work in individual labs across the country, from New Jersey to California. Each lab will focus on specific areas of the study that can then be pieced together as they frequently collaborate on the progress of their work. The Neuroanatomical Collections is a repository of research and educational materials in neuroscience established in 1993 with the transfer of the Yakovlev-Haleem Collection to the National Museum of Health and Medicine. The division has since acquired eight more collections and continues to expand. The collections, together with their written documentation and a growing database, are available to qualified researchers, evaluated on a case-by-case basis. The McDonnell Foundation was established to “improve quality of life by contributing to the generation of new knowledge though its support of research and scholarship.” The foundation supports scientific, educational, and charitable causes locally, nationally, and internationally.