News & Events
ARPA-H, which stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. One of its major projects is called the FRONT program which stands for Functional Repair of Neocortical Tissue . The FRONT program focuses on repair and regeneration of the neocortex, the largest part of the brain. The neocortex is critical for many aspects of cognition and everyday functioning. The neocortex can be damaged in many ways including stroke, traumatic injury, and neurodegeneration, such as in Alzheimer's disease. Serious damage to the neocortex often causes individuals to be dependent on costly therapies or caregivers and can also lead to related health and medical problems. The FRONT program hopes to alter this pattern by using cutting-edge neurodevelopmental principles and stem cell technology to regenerate brain tissue and restore lost functions.
For decades, families facing severe traumatic brain injury have lived with a painful assumption: once brain tissue is lost, recovery is limited to what the surviving brain can re-learn. Rehabilitation can help. Technology can assist. Time can produce surprises. But the central wound—the loss of brain cells, circuits, and connections—has often been treated as permanent. That assumption is beginning to change.
For the next half year or so the DLF will be sending you more frequent single-topic communiques in lieu of our quarterly newsletter. We hope that this will promote more efficient and timely two-way communication between you and us. These communiques will cover a wide range of topics—from a synopsis of a biomedical research project, to a report on an emerging rehabilitation technique, to announcement of a funding opportunity in brain regeneration research, to information about a resource for families of an individual with a brain injury, to information about an organization serving the brain injury community, and so on. As always, we encourage each of you to stay in touch with us if you have suggestions, ideas, or questions for the DLF. You can stay in touch by using the Contact Form on the DLF website or by messaging the DLF through Hal Lewis, Co-Chair of the DLF, at hal.lewis385@gmail.com . Our hope is to become more connected to you and vice versa.
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A Neuroengineer’s Approach to Rebuilding Neural Circuits Note: Justin Burrell is the 2025 winner of the DLF Prize for Post-Doctoral Research. This article emphasizes the regenerative potential of improving the connectivity of replenished neural material.
The Dan Lewis Foundation proudly presents Making Headway: An Evening of Scientific Advances and Musical Interludes DLF INFOTAINMENT FUNDRAISER WILL STREAM ON MARCH 26, 2026 The Dan Lewis Foundation will stream a program filled with up-to-date information about brain regeneration and terrific music on Thursday, March 26th. The event will be co-hosted by Dr. Jonathan LaPook, Chief Medical Correspondent for CBS News and Dr. David Margulies, biomedical and biotechnology writer and innovator and co-founder of the Dan Lewis Foundation. The musical performers will be Low Strung , a tremendous group of cellists who arrange and perform classic rock on their acoustic cellos and the Yale Symphony Orchestra playing two pieces from their 2025 season repertoire. The program will stream at 5:00 P.M. (Pacific), 6:00 P.M. (Mountain), 7:00 P.M. (Central), 8:00 P.M. (Eastern). This free program will be approximately one hour in length. The link to the event, which will activate on Thursday, March 26th at the above time(s) is: here . In late June, a similar program will be presented with additional information about the neuroscience and biotechnology of brain regeneration. This program will feature the Bill Hill Jazz Project and jazz pianist and Pulitzer Prize winning opera composer, Anthony Davis. Details of that event will be distributed in mid-June. We hope you will join us for this event. An informative and enjoyable program is promised!
Jonathan Lifshitz, PhD , leads the Neurotrauma & Social Impact research team as a joint venture between the University of Michigan Concussion Center, Michigan Medicine Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and the VA Ann Arbor Health Care System. He is a Michigan Impact Professor and VA Research Health Scientist. Research projects focus on investigative, restorative, and regenerative treatments for traumatic brain injury as it develops into chronic neurodegenerative disease. We investigate domestic violence, child abuse, gender imbalance, and Veteran mental health, with focus on inflammation and circuit reorganization to detect and intervene. The goal is to train generations of investigators to apply rigorous data to work for social impact, including health and medical outcomes.
My daughter, currently nearing completion of a graduate program in counselling, recently introduced me to the term “ambiguous loss”. This term applies to a loss that is unclear and lacks certainty, leaving family members and close friends feeling stuck because it is so difficult to mourn or find closure. One type of ambiguous loss is when the person is physically present but psychologically absent because their personality, memory, cognition, or emotional connection has been altered. Examples might include a family member with dementia, a progressive disease, a severe emotional disorder, or substantial brain injury. A second type of ambiguous loss is when the person is psychologically present but physically absent. This could include a missing person due to a natural disaster, a long- term incarceration, a kidnapping, or severe estrangement from the family. This type of loss can lead to intense confusion, frozen grief, and a prolonged sense of helplessness.
Marchell is an engaging and energetic middle-aged man who was enthusiastic about being interviewed for the DLF newsletter. He is an activist working to promote the rights and well-being of persons in the brain injury community, with a particular emphasis on helping persons with brain injury who are incarcerated or have been released from prison. Marchell is a successful businessman, proud of the company he co-founded--the Association of Young Business Owners (AYBOS), a marketing company in the Denver, Colorado area. He also works for Well Power (Denver’s Mental Health Center system) as a Zero Suicide Certified Peer and Family Specialist. Marchell is clearly a man on the move to get a lot of positive things done. But this wasn’t always the case. Marchell spent much of his younger adult life incarcerated himself for a variety of crimes including robbery and assault. He had a history of recidivism following multiple releases.
For most of modern medical history, the brain has been viewed as incapable of regeneration. While skin, bone, and even parts of the liver can regenerate after injury, damage to the brain—whether due to stroke, traumatic brain injury (TBI), or neurodegenerative disease—has long been considered largely irreversible. Over the past decade, however, advances across stem-cell biology, neuroengineering, and computational neuroscience are challenging this dogma. Today, a broad set of scientific strategies is aimed at enabling true repair of damaged neural circuits . Many of these scientific strategies have been highlighted in previous editions of the DLF newsletter Neural Connections ( archived at the DLF website ). Although each approach faces obstacles, the collective progress is significant enough to shift expectations about what may one day be possible. This article focuses on one strategy that has produced some of the most dramatic and tangible preclinical results: transplantation of human stem-cell–derived neural tissue.