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W. M. Keck Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

Room MSB 7.046
Coordinator: John H. Byrne, Ph.D. | E-mail
Telephone: (713) 500-5601

The W. M. Keck Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory was established with the help of the W. M. Keck Foundation in 1997 at the The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. This Center is the hub of research to better understanding the physiology of learning and memory.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston has become one of the nation’s leading health science universities. The W. M. Keck Center is at the forefront of research in the molecular processes that underlie learning and memory and seeks to answer questions such as:

• What parts of the nervous system are critical for learning?
• How is information about a learned event acquired and encoded?
• How is the information stored and retrieved?

We believe that the answers to these questions lie in understanding how the properties of individual nerve cells and the connections between them change when learning occurs. The knowledge gained from this research could lead to the development of entirely new strategies for education and training programs, and help us solve the mysteries of disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.