BioBus

This grant supports BioBus’ large-scale public event on neuroscience, art, and society on 125th Street in Harlem during Brain Awareness Week 2023. The event engages community members in discussions and activities with an artist and neuroscientists on the neuroscience and social structures underlying perception, confidence, bias, attraction, identity, and beauty. 

Dana Foundation support has made BioBus a staple of New York City’s annual Brain Awareness Week celebration, allowing their staff scientists and volunteers from local universities to bring neuroscience out of the lab and into the community. BioBus’ high-tech mobile and community laboratories provide students and the community at large with intimate access to scientists and research experiences in low-pressure, high-engagement settings. BioBus partners with the Greater NYC Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience each year, recruiting scientists from Columbia University, New York University, Mount Sinai, and Rockefeller University to participate. 

The event provides a unique opportunity for the Harlem community to explore intersections between neuroscience and art and learn how the field relates to their own experiences and larger, societal issues. 

This grant supports the Dana Education objective to empower people of all ages to use neuroscience in their everyday lives by strengthening their knowledge of the field’s real-world applications and ethical considerations through sustained informal education programs.