Project Summary
Pharmacological probes are widely used to study the nervous system. Despite often exhibiting exquisite specificity for target receptors, due to diffusion, traditional small molecule drugs act slowly and with spatial imprecision.
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 #
TitleDevelopment of opioid and ketamine probes for in vivo photopharmacology
Investigator
Matthew Ryan Banghart, Conor M Liston
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleDissecting the role of cortico-basal ganglia circuit diversity in action learning from reinforcement
Investigator
Alice Mosberger
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
To learn novel actions through reinforcement, a fundamental mechanism of motor learning, the brain needs to
causally link previously performed movements to their resulting outcomes.
TitleDissection of Cell Type Specific Contributions to Motor Learning Circuits
Investigator
Lina Marcela Carmona
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract
Whether riding your bike down a narrow path or reaching for your favorite cookie in a small box, many of our
daily actions require skilled and accurate movements. However, to achieve proficiency, these motor skills must
first be learned through the process of motor learning.
TitleDissemination of FlyWire, A Whole-Brain Connectomics Resource
Investigator
Mala Murthy
Institute
princeton university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
This proposal will disseminate FlyWire, a Drosophila whole brain connectomics resource. We
used advances in AI to segment all neurons from a whole brain EM volume called FAFB.
TitleDissemination of MAPseq and BARseq for high-throughput brain mapping
Investigator
Anthony M Zador
Institute
cold spring harbor laboratory
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The goal of this project is to disseminate MAPseq and BARseq to the broader neuroscience
community. These are novel methods developed in my laboratory based on high-throughput DNA
sequencing for determining neuronal circuitry.
TitleDistributed Neural Activity Patterns Underlying Practice-Based Learning
Investigator
Kimberly Reinhold
Institute
harvard medical school
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT
To survive, animals must learn appropriate associations between sensory cues and motor actions through a
process of trial and error.
TitleEarly-Life Stress Drives Increased Heroin Vulnerability: Role of D3 Receptors
Investigator
Brianna Elyse George
Institute
wake forest university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Stress and addiction are intricately linked neural processes. Acute stress can serve as a stimulus for relapse to
compulsive drug seeking following abstinence, and chronic stress can induce escalated drug intake to multiple
classes of drugs.
TitleEfficient Two-Photon Voltage Imaging of Neuronal Populations at Behavioral Timescales
Investigator
Jerry L Chen, Vincent A Pieribone, Michelle Yen-Ling Sander
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Understanding how information is processed in the mammalian neocortex has been a longstanding
question in neuroscience. While the action potential is the fundamental bit of information, how these
spikes encode representations and drive behavior remains unclear.
TitleEmpirical Power Analysis Tool for fMRI
Investigator
Stephanie Noble
Institute
yale university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research has transformed our understanding of human brain
function and disease and is flourishing under unprecedented international funding, including dedicated support
from the BRAIN Initiative.
TitleEnabling precise cell-type-specific dissection of orientation and memory circuits in retrosplenial cortex
Investigator
Omar Jamil Ahmed
Institute
university of michigan at ann arbor
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
In humans, damage to a brain region called the retrosplenial cortex leads to pronounced spatial disorientation
and severe retrograde and anterograde memory deficits.
TitleEngineering the Neuronal Response to Electrical Microstimulation
Investigator
Mark E. Orazem, Kevin J. Otto
Institute
university of florida
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Our proposed efforts align directly with a goal of RFA-NS-18-019: optimization of transformative technologies for modulation in the nervous system.
TitleExploring the Parameter Space of High Frequency Magnetic Perturbation in Manipulating Neural Excitability and Plasticity.
Investigator
Ludovica Labruna
Institute
magnetic tides, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) has attracted considerable interest in the cognitive neuroscience community, providing an important basic research tool to study brain function, with emerging clinical applications to enhance function in individuals with neurological disorders.
TitleFast Multichannel Magneto-thermal Genetics
Investigator
Jacob T. Robinson
Institute
rice university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Precisely timed activation of genetically targeted cells is a powerful tool for studying neural circuits. Neuronal modulation (activating or inhibiting select neurons) allows us to investigate how neural activity causes changes in animal behavior.
TitleFostering Ethical Neurotechnology Academia-Industry Partnerships: A Stakeholder Engagement and Toolkit Development Project
Investigator
Tristan Mcintosh
Institute
washington university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Neurotechnologies used to treat brain disorders and diseases can drastically change brain function and behavior,
monitor brain activity, and collect and transmit personal health data.
TitleFunctional interrogation of the mouse somatosensory thalamic interneuron in sensory perception and rhythmic states
Investigator
Jane Yi
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT/SUMMARY
The mouse somatosensory thalamus participates in fundamental processes including sensory processing, sleep
and pathological rhythmic behaviors like seizure. Local thalamic interneurons have been considerably
overlooked due to their sparsity in the total neuronal population.
TitleFunctional Mapping of the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus
Investigator
Karen Jill Tonsfeldt
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
This proposal aims to delineate the electrical and molecular diversity of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and
provide new evidence for receptor-expressing subtypes of SCN neurons using novel nanowire arrays that allow
single cell recording at 1024 contacts simultaneously.
TitleGene regulatory networks influencing neuron-microglia interactions in fetal brain development.
Investigator
Claudia Z Han
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
The prenatal period is a sensitive and critical time for brain development characterized by waves of neurogenesis,
neuronal migration, and formation of neural networks.
TitleHierarchy of the vocalization motor patterning circuits
Investigator
Kevin Yackle
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
How are complex behaviors that require the coordination of multiple muscle systems produced? How does the
brain suddenly turn them “on”?
Vocalizations are seemingly simple, yet to occur, ~100 muscles must be coordinated, such as those for
articulation (laryngeal and tongue) and breathing.
TitleHigh-resolution bidirectional optical-acoustic mesoscopic neural interface for image-guided neuromodulation in behaving animals
Investigator
Robert E. Campbell, Daniel Razansky, Shy Shoham
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
Acoustic technologies such as optoacoustic (OA) imaging and ultrasound neuromodulation (USNM) are poised to revolutionize deep tissue, high-resolution, large-scale, in vivo imaging, and neurostimulation in mammalian organisms.
TitleHigh-throughput sequencing of synaptic partnerships and gene expression at single-cell resolution in vivo
Investigator
Arpiar B Saunders
Institute
oregon health & science university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Brain function depends on forming and maintaining synaptic connections between neurons of specific types,
yet systematic descriptions of cell-type connectivity and the molecules that instruct these relationships remain
challenging because we lack some necessary tools.