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The Neurological Sciences Institute (NSI) began as the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center in Portland, Oregon in 1959. Robert S. Dow, M.D., Ph.D., the first board certified neurologist in the state of Oregon, was the laboratory's founder, bringing together a team of scientists interested in the function of the cerebellum. The NSI was formally established in 1975 and expanded to include scientists interested in many areas of neuroscience. In 1998, because it represented a bridge between basic and clinical neuroscience, the NSI was invited to join OHSU. The institute moved to a laboratory facility on the OHSU West Campus in Hillsboro, Oregon in 2000. Now called the Brain Institute, the department currently (2014) resides on the main OHSU campus on Marquam Hill in Portland, Oregon.

The NSI focuses on the need to bring high quality, interdisciplinary basic and applied scientific research to a variety of clinically relevant problems of the brain and sensory systems. The department has an outstanding track record of ground-breaking research and federal funding. Their mission is to advance knowledge of the brain and neurological disorders, and to translate that knowledge into new approaches for diagnoses, treatments, cures and prevention. Therefore, NSI investigators are dedicated, not only to gaining new knowledge about our brains and how they shape who we are, but also translating that knowledge into advancements of the clinical management of neurological disorders- one of the most widespread and devastating problems faced by our society today.