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.
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 #
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
TitleHigh-density optical tomography of cerebral blood flow and metabolism in small animals
Investigator
Guoqiang Yu
Institute
biopticstechnology, llc
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT
Many clinical situations, including stroke, expose the brain to insufficient cerebral blood flow (CBF) that cannot
maintain normal cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen consumption (CMRO2) requirements, thereby leading to
cerebral ischemic/hypoxic stresses and neurological disorders.
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.
TitleImaging Dynamics in Anxiogenic Serotonin Circuitry
Investigator
Emily Clarissa Wright
Institute
university of california at davis
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Serotonin has been long been recognized as an important modulator of mood and behavior, yet it projection-
specific dynamics are little understood.
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.
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.
TitleInvestigating Functional Ependymal Cell Heterogeneity in the Ventricular System
Investigator
Stephanie Redmond
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract:
Glial cells collectively outnumber neurons in the vertebrate brain, but mechanistic understanding of their
molecular subtypes and functions is lacking.
TitleiSonogenetics for incisionless cell-type-specific neuromodulation of non-human primate brains
Investigator
Hong Chen, Ilya E. Monosov
Institute
washington university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Critical advances in the treatment of human brain disorders are hindered by our inability to specifically target
dysfunctional circuitry in a safe and noninvasive manner.
TitleLinking Fast Timescale Neuron-Astrocyte Communication to Neural Circuit Function and Behavior
Investigator
Axel Nimmerjahn
Institute
salk institute for biological studies
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary: Project 2 - Linking Fast Timescale Neuron-Astrocyte Communication to Neural
Circuit Function and Behavior
A fundamental yet unresolved question in neuroscience is how non-neuronal cells communicate with the
surrounding neurons, influence their function, and potentially affect animal
TitleLinking function, structure, and molecular identity of lateral habenula neurons
Investigator
Steven Shabel
Institute
ut southwestern medical center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT:
The lateral habenula (LHb) impacts motivated behavior through dense direct and indirect projections to midbrain
dopaminergic and serotonergic neurons.
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 RETINOTECTAL CIRCUITS FOR VISUAL-EVOKED INNATE BEHAVIORS
Investigator
Xin Duan, Massimo Scanziani
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The precise assembly of neural circuits ensures accurate neurological function and behavior.
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.
TitleMechanism and Modulation of the homeostatic setpoint for protein feeding
Investigator
Qili Liu
Institute
university of california, san francisco
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
All animals share motivated behaviors to fulfill their basic needs for survival, including food, water,
sleep, and social interactions, etc. The homeostatic regulatory system energizes behaviors to defend a
target level for these needs (the homeostatic setpoint).
TitleMechanisms of basal forebrain control over sensory processing
Investigator
Elizabeth Hanson Moss
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
A key problem in neuroscience is understanding how internal and external information are integrated in the brain to produce
sensory experiences, cognition, and behavioral responses.
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.