Metasurface-Dressed Nanophotonic Neural Interfaces for Multipoint Concurrent Optogenetic
Modulation and Calcium Mapping
Large-scale recording of neural activity while manipulating arbitrary neurons in freely behaving animals are
important for answering many key questions in neuroscience.
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 #
TitleMetasurface-Dressed Nanophotonic Neural Interfaces for Multipoint Concurrent Optogenetic Modulation and Calcium Mapping
Investigator
Xingjie Ni
Institute
pennsylvania state university, the
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleMolecular Engineering of Natural Light-Gated Chloride Channels for Optogenetic Inhibition
Investigator
John Lee Spudich, Francois St-Pierre, Mingshan Xue
Institute
baylor college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Targeted modulation of neural activity is an essential approach in basic and clinical neuroscience research.
Optogenetic proteins, such as light-activated ion channels or pumps, enable optical control of neuronal activity
with exquisite spatiotemporal precision.
TitleMolecular MRI of Brain Metabolism Enabled by Long-Lived Spin States
Investigator
Thomas Theis
Institute
north carolina state university raleigh
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Molecular MRI of Brain Metabolism enabled by Long-Lived Spin States
Abstract:
Brain function is regulated by molecular signaling and metabolism, however our ability to track metabolic
transformations of individual metabolites deep in the brain pales compared to their central relevance to life.
TitleMolecular Multi-Species Approach for Trans-Synaptic Labeling of Neural Circuits
Investigator
Gilad Barnea, Marnie E Halpern, Jennifer Mengbo Li, Drew Robson
Institute
dartmouth college
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
It is estimated that the human brain contains an overwhelming 1015 synapses, structures essential for the normal
functioning of neural circuits.
TitleMoving MRI: Imaging a Moving Body with a Moving MRI Magnet
Investigator
Jerome L Ackerman
Institute
massachusetts general hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
In response to BRAIN RFA-EB-19-001 we propose to demonstrate a novel noninvasive brain imaging method,
Moving MRI (mMRI). In mMRI, a high resolution, high field, superconducting MRI magnet moves such that the
subject's head and body effectively remain stationary with respect to the magnet.
TitleMPS-TMS: Modular Pulse Synthesizer for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation with Fully Adjustable Pulse Shape and SequenceTBD
Investigator
Angel V Peterchev
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
We will develop a novel technology for noninvasive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the human brain.
TMS is a standard tool in experimental brain science and is FDA cleared for treatment of depression, obsessive-
compulsive disorder, and migraine as well as pre-sur
TitleMulti-modal, large-scale characterization of cellular and cell-type-specific effects with electric stimulation in rodent and human brain
Investigator
Soo Yeun Lee
Institute
allen institute
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract
The application of electric stimulation (ES) to the brain has been widely used to perturb the physiological and
pathological dynamics of neuronal circuits, with established applications including therapeutic interventions for
neurological disorders such as epilepsy, dementia, and Pa
TitleMultimodal study of infra-slow propagating brain activity
Investigator
Xiao Liu
Institute
pennsylvania state university, the
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The highly-organized intrinsic brain activity, as measured by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging
(rsfMRI), is being widely used to measure functional brain connectivity in both healthy subjects and patient
groups, despite the underlying neural mechanisms remain large
TitleNeural circuitry for observational learning of maternal behavior
Investigator
Amy Lemessurier
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Behaviors essential for survival, including parenting behaviors, are driven by neural circuits that arise from
combinations of genetics and experience-dependent learning.
TitleNeural Electrodes with Enhanced Charge Injection and Reduced Interfacial Impedance Using Graphenated Carbon Nanotubes Coated With Atomic Layer-Deposited Platinum Nanoparticles
Investigator
Charles Bernard Parker
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The objective of this project is to evaluate graphenated carbon nanotubes (gCNTs) as lower impedance,
smaller electrodes for neurostimulation, using deep brain stimulation (DBS) as a test case, with the long-term
goal of developing a new type of neural electrode with lower impedance and smaller size
TitleNeurobiology of Social Behavior: Circuit Analysis in Early Life
Investigator
Maya Opendak
Institute
new york university school of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
My long-termcareer goal is to establish a research laboratory that dissects functional microcircuits supporting
flexible social behavior in typical and perturbed development.
TitleNeuroEthics of Non-Therapeutic Invasive Human Neurophysiologic Research
Investigator
Ashley L Feinsinger, Nader Pouratian
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
The BRAIN Initiative has made a significant investment in invasive human neuroscientific studies that take
advantage of unique neurosurgical opportunities to study basic human neuroscience without therapeutic intent.
These non-therapeutic studies are of particular ethical in
TitleNeuroExplorer: Ultra-high Performance Human Brain PET Imager for Highly-resolved In Vivo Imaging of Neurochemistry
Investigator
Richard E. Carson, Hongdi Li, Jinyi Qi
Institute
yale university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Research applications of brain Positron Emission Tomography (PET) have been in place for over 40 years.
The combination of quantitative PET systems with novel radiotracers has led to a numerous imaging para-
digms to understand normal brain physiology including neurotransmitter dynamics and receptor
TitleNeuronal mechanisms of human episodic memory
Investigator
Adam Nathaniel Mamelak, Ueli Rutishauser
Institute
cedars-sinai medical center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
The rapid formation of new memories and the recall of old memories to inform decisions is essential for human
cognition, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood.
TitleNeuroPhIBER: A Nimble Fiber-Optically Read Silicon Microelectrode Array
Investigator
Amy Carole Foster, Mark A Foster
Institute
johns hopkins university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/ Abstract
Advancements in microelectrode array (MEA) neural probes have allowed the number of neurons that can be
simultaneously recorded by implantable electrodes to roughly double every 7 years since the 1970s, with present
state of the art devices allowing for simultaneous recordi
TitleNeuropixels NXT: Integrated Silicon Probes for Large Scale Extracellular Recording in Rodents and Primates
Investigator
Timothy D Harris
Institute
johns hopkins university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
1 Project Summary: The BRAIN 2025 Report, with the goal to “produce a dynamic picture of the functioning brain
2 by developing and applying improved methods for large-scale monitoring of neural activity” is directly
3 addressed by this application.
TitleNeurostimulation and Recording of Real World Spatial Navigation in Humans
Investigator
Nanthia A Suthana
Institute
university of california los angeles
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
Decades of research and clinical observations have established that successful spatial navigation and memory
depend on the hippocampus and associated structures in the medial temporal lobe (MTL), including entorhinal,
perirhinal and parahippocampal cortices [1, 2].
TitleNeurostimulation by Ultrasound: Physical, Biophysical, and Neural Mechanisms
Investigator
Stephen A Baccus, Kim Butts-Pauly, Butrus T Khuri-Yakub, Merritt C Maduke
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
The goal of this project is to understand the neurobiological underpinnings of the effects of ultrasound
(US) on neural activity. US can modify action potential activity in neurons in vitro and in vivo without damaging
neural tissue.
TitleNew approaches for chemical-genetic targeting of specific circuits and cell types in the mammalian brain
Investigator
Anton Maximov
Institute
scripps research institute, the
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The goal of this research is to establish new robust methods for manipulation of specific circuits and genetically
defined neuron types in brains of model organisms with small molecules.
TitleNobrainer: A robust and validated neural network tool suite for imagers
Investigator
Satrajit Sujit Ghosh
Institute
massachusetts institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
There is an increasing need for efficient and robust software to process, integrate, and offer insight across the
diversity of population imaging efforts underway across the BRAIN Initiative and other projects.