Mysterious and complex, the brain regulates every body function, including thought, memory and learning — the very things that make you who you are and shape your perception of the world. The pleasant smell of a flower, remembering the name of your childhood friend or learning an unfamiliar word are neurological experiences processed by the brain through roughly 86 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses.

So when something goes wrong — like a brain tumor, Alzheimer’s disease or a stroke — the impact can be not only devastating for patients and their families, but incredibly challenging to treat. At the same time, these kinds of neurological conditions are on the rise. A recent study found that they’re now the leading cause of poor health globally, impacting 43% of the world’s population.

“There isn’t a single family that doesn’t have a neuroscience story,” says Dr. Thabele “Bay” Leslie-Mazwi, chair of UW Medicine’s Department of Neurology. “These diseases are common. And they pose extraordinary management challenges. Since the brain is the most complex structure in the known universe, neuroscience is the most complex area in medicine.”

Leslie-Mazwi notes that thanks to technological advances, we’re on the cusp of making significant progress to address these challenges. “This is such a unique time. We now have tools to understand the brain that didn’t exist before.”

“When I go to another state or another country, and I say I work at Harborview, people smile because they know what that means — we have one of the best places for trauma and complex neurological conditions right here in our community,” says Ellenbogen.

In fact, when Ellenbogen’s wife (a nurse herself for 43 years) was involved in a car accident and wound up concussed, even though she was in front of another hospital, there was only one place she wanted to go: Harborview.

“She couldn’t remember her name, but she knew she needed to get to Harborview,” says Ellenbogen. But the Department of Neurological Surgery isn’t just implementing the latest technology and treatments — it’s creating them, too. The department holds 50 patents and has launched five spinoff companies.

Ellenbogen is the first to point out that the NSI’s approach to innovation has deep roots. The first chief of neurological surgery, Dr. Arthur A. Ward, was appointed in 1948, and he established the model of combining basic research within the clinical context. Over the next eight decades, the department pioneered a multidisciplinary approach to neuroscience care and research, conducted brain mapping, became an early adopter of imaging techniques, and initiated traumatic brain injury research. One of the Department of Neurological Surgery’s missions has been dedicated to training the next generation of neurosurgeons and neuroscientists.

“It’s a place where surgeons and scientists can be creative — even disruptive, in a good way — and do original things that advance patient-centric care and save lives,” says Ellenbogen.

The Department of Neurology: Unlocking the secrets of the brain

Last December, UW Medicine was chosen to be one of the first hospitals to administer the FDA-approved drug lecanemab. Research shows that it can help slow cognitive decline by 27% in people with early-stage Alzheimer’s. According to Leslie-Mazwi, it’s an important breakthrough and with time, technology and investment, only the beginning of what will be possible within the next decade.

“The complexity of the brain has led to our success as a species, but from a medical standpoint, it’s also what makes it incredibly difficult to treat and why progress has taken so much time,” says Leslie-Mazwi. “But the more we learn about how the brain works, the more we’ll be able to understand how to fix it, or better yet, prevent neurological disease from happening in the first place.”