Report: Howard Hughes Medical Institute to Join Brain-Mapping Project

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a private research foundation in Chevy Chase, will play a role in the upcoming project to map the human brain, The New York Times reported.

Last month, the Obama administration announced that it "is planning a decade-long scientific effort to examine the workings of the human brain and build a comprehensive map of its activity, seeking to do for the brain what the Human Genome Project did for genetics," The Times wrote.

Funding details are not yet clear, but scientists involved in the project's planning told The Times they hope "that federal financing for the project would be more than $300 million a year," which would need to be approved by Congress, The Times reported.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is located in the Chevy Chase Lake Sector, and the Montgomery County Planning Board has recommended to the county council that the institute's property be rezoned so that its buildings may be expanded (to a maximum height of 65 feet), according to the Planning Board Draft of the Chevy Chase Lake Sector Plan.

Read more about the brain-mapping project on The Times' website.