The American Brain Coalition (ABC) is a nonprofit umbrella organization comprised of over 100 of the United States’ leading professional neurological, psychological, and psychiatric associations and patient organizations, clinicians, researchers, academia, and industry.  The ABC is a powerful voice for people with brain disorders bringing together organizations that represent concerned patients, families, and professionals. This collaborative voice is used to create awareness and understanding of the importance of the BRAIN Initiative, and advocate for increased BRAIN Initiative funding to provide innovative discoveries  that will improve patients’ quality of life and enhance a national commitment toward cures for patients with brain disorders.

BRAIN Initiative Briefings

The ABC has linked up with the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus when it was established in 2010 to promote a better understanding of how the brain develops, functions, and ages. The Caucus also seeks to raise awareness about the millions of Americans afflicted with neurological disorders or mental illnesses. The ABC has hosted and organized a series of Congressional Neuroscience Caucus briefings to educate members of Congress, their staffers, and the public on the importance of the BRAIN Initiative, and its unprecedented public-private partnership to revolutionize our understanding of the human brain.

Congressional BRAIN Investigators Receptions and Fairs

The ABC, along with other BRAIN Initiative Alliance non-governmental organization partners and the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus, have organized fairs and receptions bringing BRAIN Initiative-funded investigators to Capitol Hill to demonstrate progress and breakthroughs in brain science by events featuring interactive neuroscience exhibits, and sharing exciting stories about investigators’ work untangling the mysteries of our body’s most complex organ.

BRAIN Initiative Educational Outreach

The ABC continues to host panels and webinars to educate the brain-related patient advocacy community on the importance of the BRAIN Initiative, highlighting the collaboration involving public,  private, federal, and global partners; the goal to develop new technologies to explore how the brain’s cells and circuits interact, and how basic research is the foundation for all great breakthrough discoveries; focus on high impact, high priority research including tools that help researchers understand brain function; and the importance of future neuroscience research as the work to unravel the mysteries of the most complicated structure in the know universe has only just begun.

Advocating for Federal Investment in the BRAIN Initiative

The ABC actively advocates for federal funding of the BRAIN Initiative, providing the brain-related patient advocacy community with the resources needed to speak with Congress and articulate the importance of BRAIN Initiative funding, as well as circulating community sign-on letters and other resources.