TCCI’s 2023 Annual Report is here!



	中文

Dear Friends,

Spring has sprung and we are happy to share with you our 2023 Annual Report. The report aims to recap for you the tremendous research conducted by the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech, the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Translational Research in Shanghai and the Chen Frontier Labs. It also details the many scientific meetings we support around the world.

Also included in this annual publication is information about the new Chen Institute and Science Prize for AI Accelerated Research and our new Chen Scholars program. Read about our advocacy and education programs as well as the first annual FENS – Chen Institute – Neuroléman Summer School which took place in Switzerland last summer.

We hope you enjoy looking back at the progress made as much as we did.

Kind regards,

Tianqiao Chen Chrissy Luo

NEWS

2023 Chen Institute Annual Report

Read through the tremendous achievements in 2023 of the Chen Institute and its strategic partners.

Read the Annual Report

USC-Chen Institute Frontiers Forum: “Sensation and Motivation”

We are happy to announce our second annual USC-Chen Institute Frontiers Forum which is focused on “Sensation and Motivation.” This year’s meeting is being organized with Dr. Li Zhang, Center for Neural Circuits & Sensory Processing Disorders, and Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Keck School of Medicine, USC and will take place April 24-25, 2024.

FENS – Chen Institute – NeuroLéman 2024 Summer School on Monitoring and manipulating the affective state: new perspectives on neurotechnologies and AI tools

The popular summer school will take place 25—31 Aug 2024 at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. This year, organizers aim to integrate fundamental and clinical neuroscience with technology (with a special focus on A.I. tools) and harmonize these three levels of investigations around novel approaches applied to animals and humans decrypting affective states.

Read more on the FENS website

SUPPORTING THE COMMUNITY

Honolulu, May 11-16

CHI 2024: Human Factors in Computing Systems

Vienna, May 7-11

ICLR 2024: 12th Annual International Conference on Learning

MEETING REPORT

A New Era of Emotion Understanding: Insights from ACII 2023

BY Tomas Ariel D'Amelio & Hongxia Xie

The ACII 2023 (Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction) conference, held 10- 13 September 2023 at the MIT Media Lab - widely recognized as the birthplace of affective computing, brought together researchers and innovators from the fields of affective computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and affective science. This report aims to distill and articulate the conference's key dialogs, emerging technologies, and pressing ethical and methodological challenges.

Read the full report

RESEARCH

Mutant Newts Can Regenerate Previously Defective Limbs

Many salamanders have the remarkable ability to regrow their own limbs and tails after an injury. How are they able to do this, while more complex mammals, such as humans, cannot? Marianne Bronner, the Edward B. Lewis Professor of Biology and director of the Beckman Institute at Caltech seeks to understand the molecular processes that underlie regeneration. A paper describing the research appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on March 5.

Read more on the TCCI for Neuroscience Website

Large Language Models in the Classroom

In fall 2023, Professor Frederick Eberhardt allowed Ethics & AI students to use large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT in assignments, sparking debate. Eberhardt required ‘Generative AI Memos’ detailing tool use. He embraced LLMs despite initial challenges, noting students’ evolution in integrating human and AI-generated content. While some produced impressive work, others struggled with machine dominance. Nonetheless, students valued LLMs for overcoming writer’s block.

Read more on the TCCI for Neuroscience site

On behalf of all investigators, Ying Mao presents the results of the Chinese MAGIC-MT study at the 2024 International Stroke Conference

On February 9, 2024, Ying Mao, Director of the Translational Center of Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, released the results of the MAGIC-MT study on managing non-acute subdural hematoma using liquid materials on behalf of all investigators in the closing ceremony of the 2024 International Stroke Conference in the United States. The MAGIC-MT study is an investigator-initiated, multicenter, randomized, controlled trial with a superiority design to compare the efficacy of middle meningeal artery embolization with conventional therapies for the treatment of symptomatic non-acute subdural hematomas. The results confirmed that middle meningeal artery embolization significantly reduces the rate of progression/recurrence of symptomatic non-acute subdural hematomas or all-cause mortality rate.

Read the article on Pubmed

Weight affects the risk of neurological and psychiatric disorders differently

A team led by Jintai Yu, a researcher at the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, explored the correlation between body mass index (BMI) and its changes and BMI-metabolic health status with six neurological and psychiatric disorders (stroke, dementia, Parkinson's disease, anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders). The study demonstrated the harmful effects of obesity on stroke, anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders, as well as the adverse effects of BMI loss on anxiety and sleep disorders. The findings were published in Nature Mental Healthand were selected by the editors for the Research Briefing.

Read the article on Nature

Large-scale exome-wide association analysis identifies new genes associated with sleep

A joint team led by Jintai Yu, a researcher at Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, identified new genes associated with sleep phenotypes based on exome-wide sequencing data and association analysis algorithms of nearly 450,000 people, further analyzed the genetic contribution of rare mutations to sleep phenotypes, and explained the genetic mechanisms underlying the association of sleep with health outcomes such as cognition, neuropsychiatric disorders, and inflammation. The study has the largest sample size to date and includes a comprehensive exome-wide association analysis of sleep with a comprehensive range of phenotypes. The findings were published in Nature Human Behaviour.

Read the article on Nature

Detection of common EEG phenomena using individual electrodes placed outside the hair

Many studies over the past decades have provided exciting evidence that electrical signals recorded from the scalp (electroencephalogram, EEG) hold meaningful information about the brain’s function or dysfunction. One of the major hurdles to practical application of EEG-based neurotechnologies is the current predominant requirement to use electrodes that are placed in the hair, which greatly reduces practicality and cosmesis. A team at the Chen Frontier Lab studied exactly what EEG phenomena related to auditory, visual, cognitive, motor, and sleep function can be detected from different combinations of individual signal/referencing electrodes that are placed outside the hair.

Read the study in Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express