l’Université Hébraïque de Jérusalem (Friends of Fund)

The Fund was created on the initiative of philanthropic friends. They use their own network and that of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to collect donations. The funds collected are used to financially support various projects of the organization.

The term "neurodegenerative diseases" collectively refers to a group of diseases that primarily affect the neurons of the human brain. These diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Huntington's disease, affect millions of people worldwide. The risk of developing a neurodegenerative disease increases dramatically with age. Widespread improvements in health care have increased life expectancy, which means that more people may be affected by neurodegenerative diseases in the coming decades. It is therefore critical to better understand the causes of these diseases. The goal of the Edmond and Lily Safra Brain Research Center (ELSC) is not to find a miracle solution for a particular brain disease. Rather, the mission of the new Laboratory for the Study of Neurodegenerative Diseases will be to promote a dynamic program of neuroscience research, developing and adopting new technological and theoretical approaches with the utmost skill, as brain science expands around the world. The mission and structure of the ELSC already provide widespread, future-oriented flexibility in brain research. For example, the ELSC focuses on the study of computation in neural circuits, based on the premise that by combining a high-resolution understanding of local neural circuits (from genes to neurons to synapses) with a global theory of the computational principles of the brain, it would be possible to understand the whole of brain mechanisms. The ELSC leadership is convinced that this understanding will be the basis for a true knowledge-based medicine of the future. The ELSC intends to recruit and support scientists to meet this challenge. It is committed to continuing to test and evaluate current knowledge to allow new strategies to emerge, until it can find the right way to enable humanity to cure, prevent, and eliminate brain-related diseases through understanding the brain.