Genetic and neural mechanisms underlying emerging social behavior in zebrafish
Our goal is to understand emerging collective behaviors of groups, such as schooling and shoaling in fish.
Our approach is to dissect basic sensorimotor transformations in the zebrafish, which we believe play a
fundamenta
Funded Awards
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) BRAIN Initiative funds a wide-variety of research: toolmakers, trainees, individual labs testing new hypotheses, and large, team-based efforts aiming to catalyze neuroscience inquiry forward. Explore NIH BRAIN Initiative funded awards listed below. Click on the project title to learn more about it within NIH RePORTER.
To see more NIH-funded awards and associated publications, please visit the NIH RePORTER.
Title
Investigator(s)
Institution
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunity #
Project #
TitleGenetic and neural mechanisms underlying emerging social behavior in zebrafish
Investigator
Florian Engert, Mark C Fishman
Institute
harvard university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleHarmonizing and Archiving of Large-scale Infant Neuroimaging Data
Investigator
Gang Li
Institute
univ of north carolina chapel hill
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract
The first postnatal years are an exceptionally dynamic and critical period of structural and functional development
of the human brain. Many neurodevelopmental disorders are the consequence of abnormal brain development
during this stage.
TitleHeritability and cognitive implications of structural-functional connectome coupling
Investigator
Amy Kuceyeski
Institute
weill medical coll of cornell univ
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The human brain is an unimaginably complicated system of interconnected neurons that is capable of complex
thought, emotion and behavior.
TitleHigh-content single-cell epigenetic technologies scalable to the human brain
Investigator
Andrew Adey
Institute
oregon health & science university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT ABSTRACT
To meet the goal of the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network to catalogue and produce molecular profiles of
every cell type in the human brain; order-of-magnitude improvements in single-cell assay throughput and
coverage are required.
TitleHigh-resolution synaptic and functional connectivity mapping of a neural circuit architecture underlying a behavioral sequence
Investigator
Andrew Michael Seeds
Institute
university of puerto rico med sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The ability to generate complex motor behaviors by assembling sequences of movements is essential for
purposeful actions and survival. Defects in the brain regions thought to drive such movement selection can lead
to behaviors becoming abnormally repetitive (e.g. autism spectrum disorder).
TitleHighly scalable and sensitive spatial transcriptomic and epigenomic sequencing of brain tissues from human and non-human primate
Investigator
Rong Fan, Nenad Sestan
Institute
yale university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
The human nervous system is possibly the most complex biological tissue, organized into multiple functionally
distinct regions and comprised of over 200 billion neural and non-neural cells, requiring novel scalable tools to
profile cell types and relationships in the tissue context with high
TitleHippocampal neural dynamics driving affiliation and attachment
Investigator
Zoe Rebecca Donaldson, Peyman Golshani, Weizhe Hong, Michael Moshe Yartsev
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract:
Attachment powerfully shapes our development and remains a primary driver of health and well-being in
adulthood; disruption of attachments is highly traumatic.
TitleIntegration of High Definition Display Technologies with Platinum Nanorod Microelectrodes for Large Scale in-vivo Recording and Stimulation
Investigator
Shadi Dayeh
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
We propose to develop novel neurorecording devices using sequential thin-film transistors that are capable of
recording and stimulating brain activity with thousands of channels using only 8 wires and to demonstrate
broadband recordings with large area coverage in fully awake, chronically i
TitleIntegrative analysis of genomics and imaging data from the BRAIN Initiative and other public data sources
Investigator
Mark Bender Gerstein, Avram J Holmes
Institute
yale university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Constructing an integrated picture of human brain function requires understanding how the effects of molecular
and genetic factors propagate upwards, through many intervening layers of structure and interaction, to
influence behavioral, psychiatric and cognitive traits.
TitleIntegrative analysis of multiomic datasets for discovery of molecular underpinnings of large-scale human brain networks
Investigator
Mikail Rubinov
Institute
vanderbilt university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
Brain-mapping initiatives are acquiring increasingly large and comprehensive neuroimaging and multiomic—
e.g. genomic and transcriptomic—datasets.
TitleInterrogating the propagation of electrical stimulation across scales in vivo
Investigator
Daniel James Denman
Institute
university of colorado denver
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Intracranial electrical brain stimulation (EBS) remains a central method in the clinic as well as for research in
several animal model systems. However, little is actually known about the ensembles of neurons activated by
typical and clinical intracranial EBS protocols.
TitleIntersectional transgenic targeting of discrete neuronal and glial subtypes
Investigator
Jeffrey Mumm
Institute
johns hopkins university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Tools for exclusively targeting neuronal and glial subtypes are needed to advance our understanding of the brain.
“Intersectional” systems improve targeting by restricting “reporter/effector” transgenes to a subdomain defined
by the expression overlap between two activating factors.
TitleLong-range neuronal projections: circuit blueprint or stochastic targeting? Rigorous classification of brain-wide axonal reconstructions
Investigator
Giorgio A Ascoli
Institute
george mason university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT (PROJECT SUMMARY)
The classification of neurons in the mammalian brain has long been a focus of intensive investigation in
neuroscience.
TitleMap Manager: Longitudinal image analysis with online editing and sharing.
Investigator
Robert Harry Cudmore
Institute
university of california at davis
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The increasing availability and ease of use of confocal, two-photon, and light-sheet microscopes coupled with
rapid developments in fluorescent protein reporters have made 3D and functional imaging and its analysis a
central component of modern Neuroscience research.
TitleMapping thalamo-striatal neuronal circuits underlying motivational drive
Investigator
Sofia Beas
Institute
national institute of mental health
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Motivational drive is an adaptive process that helps individuals overcome obstacles to obtain essential needs and hence ensure survival. Motivation is composed of two major components.
TitleMidbrain circuits for perceptual decision-making
Investigator
Martha E Bickford, Michele A Basso, Jianhua Cang, Alev Erisir, Per Benjamin Sederberg
Institute
university of virginia
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Perceptual decision-making is a fundamental cognitive ability that is vital to healthy, daily functioning and is
impaired in many diseases.
TitleMinimally Invasive Ultrasonic Brain-Machine Interface
Investigator
Richard A Andersen, Mikhail Shapiro, Mickael Tanter
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) are one of the key motivating applications for the BRAIN Initiative’s drive to develop
innovative technologies for large-scale recording of neural activity, benefiting not only BMI, but many other neuroscience
studies.
TitleMolecular recording to predict cell fate decisions and animal behavior
Investigator
Joseph D Dougherty, Robi D Mitra
Institute
washington university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
The brain is remarkably complex, and our understanding of this organ is still in its infancy. Many
fundamental questions about brain development and function remain.
TitleMultiscale theory of synapse function with model reduction by machine learning
Investigator
Eric D Mjolsness
Institute
university of california-irvine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
This project constructs a unifying model that links synaptic morphodynamics, the fundamental process of
learning and memory in the brain, to the underlying molecular signaling pathways that regulate it.
TitleNanosensors for sensitive brain-wide neurochemical imaging
Investigator
Alan Jasanoff
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The large-scale dynamics of neural circuitry depend on interactions among numerous neurochemical spe-
cies that play functionally distinct roles throughout the brain.
Last reviewed on July 02, 2025