K. Lisa Yang Brain Body Center launches at Harvard Medical School

Every feeling in our body, from a pang of hunger to a wave of nausea to a jolt of pain, stems from a constant dialogue between our body and brain. This crosstalk is so subtle that we remain largely unaware of it, yet it involves a complex cascade of signals that unfolds across virtually all organs and systems in the body.

At Harvard Medical School, researchers have been working to decode how this brain-body communication works and the ways it can go awry.

Now, a $30 million gift to Harvard University from philanthropist Lisa Yang is propelling these efforts by establishing the K. Lisa Yang Brain Body Center at HMS. The center will bring together experts from diverse disciplines to illuminate the mysteries of brain-body signaling and train the next generation of researchers.

“This extraordinary gift will supercharge our efforts to unravel one of biology’s greatest mysteries: how the brain and body communicate to keep us healthy,” said HMS Dean George Q. Daley. “It is an investment that will spark discoveries, foster collaboration, and train the scientists who will lead the field into the future.”

The center is part of the Yang Tan Collective, which includes six research centers at MIT and two at HMS. The collective brings together top scientists and fellows — postdocs, PhD candidates, and graduate students — in a focused, collaborative community that aims to turn fundamental discoveries into solutions that improve quality of life. Scientists at the new HMS center will collaborate with peer researchers at the sister K. Lisa Yang Brain-Body Center at MIT.

“Our goal is to understand how different body systems are represented in the brain, and in turn, how the brain coordinates the functioning of these systems,” said center co-director David Ginty, the Edward R. and Anne G. Lefler Professor of Neurobiology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS. “The gift will unify the efforts of scientists across different laboratories and institutions to study brain-body communication and physiology in health and disease.”

“Even the most brilliant research on individual organ systems can’t capture the whole human body — a marvel of biology, chemistry, and physics, guided by brain circuits that we barely understand,” Yang added. “I hope the combined expertise of the Harvard and MIT Brain-Body Centers will fast-track this understanding and bring us closer to treatments for chronic diseases.”

Collaboration around brain-body communication

In recent years, scientists have become increasingly interested in how body-brain communication plays out across various organs and systems. But the field has suffered from a lack of collaboration between scientists studying different aspects of this process, says Mark Andermann, an investigator at the new center.

“The field of brain-body communication is exploding, but what’s missing are concerted collaborations that bring multiple labs together — it’s been hard to establish a critical mass of close collaborators,” said Andermann, professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and professor of neurobiology at HMS.

This is where the new center comes into play. Housed within the neurobiology department, the center will include scientists with deep expertise in the physiology of the brain and organ systems. These scientists will collaborate internally and work together externally with investigators at MIT’s sister center, which has pioneered novel tools and approaches for studying brain-body communication.

The HMS center was established with a $10 million endowment, plus another $10 million in research funds to be used within five years. An additional $10 million endowment will provide fellowships and support to PhD students and postdoctoral researchers interested in the field of brain-body communication.

Core investigators include Andermann and Ginty, as well as co-director Michael Greenberg, the Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology; Chenghua Gu, professor of neurobiology; Stephen Liberles, professor of cell biology; and Dragana Rogulja, associate professor of neurobiology.

Some of the questions they will tackle are:

How does the brain sense and interpret current and future bodily states?

The Andermann Lab studies brain circuits that integrate signals from multiple organs in the body and give rise to complicated sensations such as pain, hunger, and thirst. The researchers have already published research on hunger and stress and daydreaming. Now, they are imaging neurons over time to create an “atlas” that links neural circuits to bodily states. This information is critical for understanding the neural basis of conditions such as anorexia nervosa and obesity.

How does the brain process sensory information from the skin and internal organs?

The Ginty Lab focuses on how sensory neurons throughout the body transmit signals to the brain. The researchers are investigating how the brain processes tactile, thermal, and pain information from the skin, bones, joints, teeth, genitalia, and bladder. They hope to use their findings to develop new treatments for touch over-reactivity and chronic pain. Ginty’s research has already generated insights about touch neurons in the skin and brainstem/spinal cord and sensory neurons in the colon. 

How do the brain and body communicate during maturation of the visual system?

The Greenberg Lab recently found that after birth, light in the eye triggers the adrenal gland to release corticosterone, a hormone known to regulate metabolism, immunity, and stress. The researchers are now investigating how early experiences shape corticosterone’s role in supporting the development of visual and nonvisual brain circuits. Insights from their research could shed light on the origin of neurodevelopmental disorders and nerve damage. The work builds on Greenberg’s research on brain plasticity.

How do blood vessels translate inflammatory cues from the blood to the brain?

Research in the Gu Lab has detailed blood flow in the brain and mechanisms that control the blood-brain barrier. Now, the lab is studying how the immune system communicates with the brain. The work focuses on how endothelial cells that line the brain’s blood vessels communicate immune signals from the blood to the brain. The researchers are especially interested in how this crosstalk drives inflammation, which can damage the brain over time.

How do sensory neurons in the vagus nerve control basic bodily functions?

The Liberles Lab is investigating sensory neurons in the vagus nerve — a major information highway that connects the brain to internal organs. The researchers are focusing on neurons that control basic functions such as breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, and digestion. They have defined neurons and mechanisms underlying sensation in the cardiovascular system, digestive tract, airways, and internal organs more broadly. Now, they will expand their work by charting communication pathways from the heart and reproductive system.

How do the nervous system and the gut interact in the context of sleep?

The Rogulja Lab studies sleep, including why animals need sleep and what happens in the body without it. The researchers have already shown that a lack of sleep leads to problems in the gut. Now, they want to explore if and how these problems stem from the gut’s interactions with the autonomic nervous system. They also want to determine whether sleep loss is contributing to increasing rates of colon cancer in young people.

Sustained funding in an uncertain time

The investigators agree that in a time of uncertainty around federal funding for research, there’s an ever greater need for new ways to sustain critical research on basic biological mechanisms — the type of science that has historically yielded the most transformative treatments.

The researchers hope that together, their projects will provide a more holistic understanding of brain-body communication — and in the process, can illuminate the underlying mechanisms of diseases that occur when this communication breaks down.

“The sky is the limit for deciphering the nature of communication between the body and the brain and identifying opportunities for improving the human condition,” Ginty said. “This new gift will catalyze our efforts to do so.”