HCAR - Hershey Center for Applied Research. South Centrals Pennsylvania's Premier Research Park Located Adjacent to Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine.
Neurosciences
At HCAR, "brainiac" could well be considered a technical term. Well, not really, but the network of researchers focused on neuroscience is enough to make any serious neuroscientist take pause.
The Penn State Hershey Neuroscience Research Institute, established in 2004, conducts research, provides research training and clinical care in the neurosciences. Basic and clinical research, with a strong focus on translational and transdisciplinary brain research, brings scientists, fellows, and students together from throughout the Penn State University to investigate and treat neurological and mental disorders. Basic and clinical neuroscientists from a wide array of medical, engineering, social and behavioral science backgrounds work together to discover and advance knowledge about normal and abnormal brain function, develop new treatments for neurological and other disorders of the brain and provide evidence-based clinical care at Penn State affiliated programs.
The main research areas include:
- Molecular neurobiology and developmental neuroscience: investigating how and why the nervous system develops and functions as it does, at genetic, molecular and cellular levels
- Cognitive neuroscience and behavioral neurobiology: exploring how the nervous system processes information, controls autonomic functions, regulates states of consciousness, or determines behavior
- Neuroendocrinology and neurotoxicology: how hormones and other chemicals affect nerve cells and their interactions
- Neural engineering: using computer engineering, robotics and other technical disciplines to investigate how the nervous system works, and how it can be manipulated
- Systems neuroscience: how neural circuits function, coordinate and are controlled
- Clinical neuroscience: seeking means of diagnosing, treating and preventing diseases and dysfunctions of the brain and nerves, such as malignant brain tumors, congenital and acquired brain diseases and neurodegenerative diseases.