Astrocytes are a major class of non-neuronal cells in the brain whose crosstalk with neurons at the synaptic
and circuit levels remains poorly understood.
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 #
TitleNovel tools for spatiotemporal modulation of astrocytes in neuronal circuits
Investigator
Mriganka Sur
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitlePediatric Deep Brain Stimulation: Neuroethics and Decision Making
Investigator
Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, Gabriel Lazaro-Munoz, Eric A. Storch
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) and adaptive DBS systems are currently used in children with dystonia,
epilepsy, and Tourette Syndrome, and its use is expanding to other neuropsychiatric conditions.
TitleProprioceptive Coding of Jaw Movement during Orofacial Behavior
Investigator
William Paul Olson
Institute
johns hopkins university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Integration of sensory information with motor commands allows movement to be adaptable. For example,
many survival-critical orofacial behaviors (chewing, drinking, breathing, etc.) involve updating movement
trajectories based on interaction with objects (e.g.
TitleRapid Evaluation of Neuronal Activity in the Intact Whole-Brain at Single Cell Resolution
Investigator
Damian G. Wheeler
Institute
translucence biosystems, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
New imaging tools are needed for brain-wide visualization of the neural activity underlying defined
behaviors. Live imaging techniques such as fMRI and MEG measure activity across the brain, but
these methods cannot resolve single cell activity.
TitleRapid, single-cell level molecular phenotyping of intact brains via active immunohistochemistry
Investigator
Adam C Hall, Frank He, Jeffrey Stirman
Institute
lifecanvas technologies, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract. Cell-level analysis and a growing appreciation of cell-type diversity have transformed our
understanding of the brain.
TitleRe-engineering Rabies Virus
Investigator
Ian R Wickersham
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Every part of the brain is composed of dense tangles of heavily-interconnected neurons of many different types,
each playing completely different roles in the circuitry.
TitleRelating functional MRI to neuronal activity: accounting for effects of microarchitecture
Investigator
Anna I Blazejewska
Institute
massachusetts general hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The central goal of the BRAIN Initiative is to understand the structure and function of human brain circuits.
TitleResponsive Neurostimulation for Loss of Control Eating
Investigator
Casey Harrison Halpern, James D Lock, Robert C Malenka, Tara L Skarpaas (Crowder)
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract
Background/Description.
TitleResponsive Neurostimulation for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Investigator
Jean-Philippe Langevin
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) refractory to treatment is marked by failure of fear extinction and its
biological substrate, amygdala reactivity to trauma reminders13,14.
TitleRevealing neural computations through combined optical and electrical recordings
Investigator
Gregory Darin Field, Alexander Sher
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
A major limitation to understanding the brain is a shortage of technologies for tracking the
activity of large populations of individual neurons across multiple layers of synaptic processing.
Ideally, these measurements of population activity would be compatible with both optogenetic
TitleRevealing the transcriptional and developmental mechanisms of interneuron identity
Investigator
Megan Crow
Institute
cold spring harbor laboratory
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Cortical GABAergic interneurons are critical components of neural circuitry, and their dysfunction has been
linked to neurodevelopmental diseases.
TitleScaling up spatial RNA profiling with compressed sensing
Investigator
Fei Chen, Yonina Eldar
Institute
broad institute, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Single cell RNA-Seq (scRNA-Seq) and Imaging Transcriptomics (IT) methods have put a systematic
understanding of the brain and brain diseases through comprehensive 3-dimensional map of its constituent
cell types within reach.
TitleSensory recruitment by working memory: neuronal basis and neural circuitry
Investigator
Behrad Noudoost
Institute
university of utah
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Working memory maintenance is fundamental for the orderly pursuit of goals in the
face of irrelevant, distracting stimuli.
TitleSingle cell isoform expression across mouse brain regions and development
Investigator
Hagen Ulrich Tilgner
Institute
weill medical coll of cornell univ
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Single cell isoform expression across mouse brain regions and development
Much of the mouse brain's biology is defined by the action of long RNA and protein isoforms in distinct cell
types and brain regions.
TitleSingle cell transcriptional and epigenomic atlas of the macaque brain across the lifespan
Investigator
Michael L Platt, Jay Ashok Shendure, Noah Snyder-Mackler
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT / SUMMARY
New technologies are enabling molecular profiling of single brain cells at remarkable throughput.
TitleSingle Neuron Analyzer for Multi-modal, Cross-dataset (Epi)genomic Cell Type Datasets
Investigator
Eran A Mukamel
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Our project will create a computational resource, the Single Neuron Analyzer, to support the neuroscience
community’s efforts to build a reproducible, comprehensive, data-driven atlas of brain cell types.
TitleSpinal Circuits for the Control of Dextrous Movement
Investigator
Martyn D Goulding
Institute
salk institute for biological studies
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary: Overall
Local networks within the spinal cord represent an essential computational layer for the control of limb-driven
motor behaviors, integrating descending and sensory inputs to coordinate dexterous motor output.
TitleStructural and functional connectivity of the social decision-making network
Investigator
Adam Steven Smith
Institute
university of kansas lawrence
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Humans and numerous other species live in complex social environments, requiring many of our most important
decisions to be made in the context of social interactions.
TitleStructural, single-cell transcriptomic, and functional 3-photon mapping of spinal pain circuits
Investigator
Prakash Kara, Suhasa B Kodandaramaiah, Lyudmila H Vulchanova
Institute
university of minnesota
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Spinal dorsal horn interneurons (IN) integrate somatosensory inputs and control their access to spinal
projection neurons (PrN) that transmit nociceptive information to supraspinal components of pain pathways.
The heterogeneity of dorsal horn neurons, limited knowledge on their conne
TitleSubcellular Mapping and Post-Synaptic Impacts of Striatal Dopamine Release During Behavior
Investigator
Mai-Anh Vu
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The basal ganglia are a group of deep brain nuclei that play a central role in motivating, selecting, and learning
actions.