Rui Costa is President and CEO of The Allen Institute. He performed his Ph.D. studies with Dr.
Alcino Silva at UCLA and postdoctoral work with Dr. Miguel Nicolelis at Duke University. He became
Section Chief at the NIH in 2006, Investigator of the Champalimaud Neuroscience Program in 2009,
and Professor at Columbia University in 2016. He was co-director of Champalimaud Research and
Director/CEO of the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University.

His laboratory develops and uses genetic, electrophysiological, optical, and behavioral
approaches to investigate how the brain adaptively controls behavior and internal organ function.
They uncovered that direct and indirect striatal pathways are concurrently active during movement
initiation, this activity is action-specific, and needed for proper movement – challenging the classical
Go/NoGo model. They also demonstrated that a dopaminergic neuron sub-population is active before
movement, and critical for initiating and invigorating future movement, but not reward coding. Finally,
they revealed distinct cortico-basal ganglia circuit mechanisms mediating goal-directed actions versus
habits and showed that plasticity in basal ganglia is critical to reinforce cortical activity patterns that
lead to reward.

He has received awards including the Young Investigator Award from the Society for
Neuroscience, the Young Investigator Career Award from the Jean-Louis Jeantet Foundation, the
Ariëns Kappers Medal from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the NIH Pioneer
Award, and the Mina Bissell Award. He was Knighted Commander of the Order of Sant’Iago da Espada
by the President of Portugal and is an elected member of EMBO, and the National Academy of
Medicine.

Allen Institute | Seattle, USA
Co-Investigator

Rui Costa, PhD, DVM

Allen Institute

Rui Costa is President and CEO of The Allen Institute. He performed his Ph.D. studies with Dr.
Alcino Silva at UCLA and postdoctoral work with Dr. Miguel Nicolelis at Duke University. He became
Section Chief at the NIH in 2006, Investigator of the Champalimaud Neuroscience Program in 2009,
and Professor at Columbia University in 2016. He was co-director of Champalimaud Research and
Director/CEO of the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University.

His laboratory develops and uses genetic, electrophysiological, optical, and behavioral
approaches to investigate how the brain adaptively controls behavior and internal organ function.
They uncovered that direct and indirect striatal pathways are concurrently active during movement
initiation, this activity is action-specific, and needed for proper movement – challenging the classical
Go/NoGo model. They also demonstrated that a dopaminergic neuron sub-population is active before
movement, and critical for initiating and invigorating future movement, but not reward coding. Finally,
they revealed distinct cortico-basal ganglia circuit mechanisms mediating goal-directed actions versus
habits and showed that plasticity in basal ganglia is critical to reinforce cortical activity patterns that
lead to reward.

He has received awards including the Young Investigator Award from the Society for
Neuroscience, the Young Investigator Career Award from the Jean-Louis Jeantet Foundation, the
Ariëns Kappers Medal from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the NIH Pioneer
Award, and the Mina Bissell Award. He was Knighted Commander of the Order of Sant’Iago da Espada
by the President of Portugal and is an elected member of EMBO, and the National Academy of
Medicine.