Project Summary
To accomplish their diverse maintenance and protective roles, microglia must be extremely plastic, dynamically
sensing and responding to specific local challenges throughout the brain.
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 #
TitleA novel platform for the investigation of human microglia
Investigator
Mathew Mark Blurton-Jones, Robert C Spitale
Institute
university of california-irvine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleA SAFE AND COMPACT NEONATE TO ADULT NEUROIMAGING MRI SYSTEM
Investigator
Ravi Srinivasan
Institute
advanced imaging research, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
NIH SBIR PA-18-871 w/o Clinical Trials A Safe and Compact Neonate to Adult Neuroimaging MRI System
The intriguing human brain is the most imaged end-organ non-invasively, without ionizing radiation using
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
TitleA system for whole-brain recording and control of activated neurons with near-infrared light
Investigator
Daria Shcherbakova
Institute
albert einstein college of medicine
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
ABSTRACT:
The brain simultaneously processes tremendous amount of information using billions of neurons.
Technologies for large scale recording and modulation of neurons in the brain of behaving animals
sought by this RFA should provide researchers with tools to correlate neural circuits with behavi
TitleA Technology Resource for Polymer Microelectrode Arrays
Investigator
Ellis Meng, Dong Song
Institute
university of southern california
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The purpose of this proposal is to disseminate polymer microelectrode arrays and promote their
integrated into neuroscience research practice.
TitleA wearable functional-brain-imaging system with full-head coverage and enhanced spatiotemporal-resolution to study complex neural circuits in human subjects
Investigator
Peter D. D. Schwindt
Institute
sandia corp-sandia national laboratories
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
To develop maps at multiple scales of neuronal circuits in the human brain and study the brain dynamics, there
is a need for non-invasive functional brain imaging with high spatiotemporal resolution operating in natural
environments.
TitleA wearable high-density MEG system with uOPMs
Investigator
Orang Alem
Institute
fieldline, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
This Phase I project will focus on developing key elements needed to achieve a wearable, high-density,
magnetoencephalography (MEG) device based on optically-pumped atomic magnetometers (OPMs).
OPM sensors have progressed to be comparable in sensitivity to liquid-helium-cooled superconducti
TitleAccurate and reliable computational dosimetry and targeting for transcranial magnetic stimulation
Investigator
Luis Javier Gomez
Institute
duke university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive technique used for neuroscience research and
treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders. During TMS, a current-carrying coil placed on the scalp
induces an electric field that modulates targeted neuronal circuits.
TitleADVANCED NEXT GEENRATION RADIO FREQUENCY COILS FOR MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING
Investigator
Ravi Srinivasan
Institute
advanced imaging research, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a safe, non-ionizing diagnostic tool. The overall goal of this
project is to arrive very close to the ultimate intrinsic signal to noise ratio (UISNR) for a given MRI
magnet field strength by combining innovations in very advanced transceiver technology.
TitleAn open software solution to integrate non-invasive brain stimulation with functional imaging data
Investigator
Alexander Opitz
Institute
university of minnesota
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
Noninvasive tools capable of selectively manipulating neural systems in the human brain are needed to
advance our neuroscientific understanding of brain function and develop novel non-pharmacologic
psychotherapeutics and are a major focus of Brain Initiative funding.
TitleAn optogenetic brain implant with EEG monitoring and response for mice
Investigator
Kevan Sayed Hashemi
Institute
open source instruments, inc.
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract: Optogenetics can be used to selectively stimulate or suppress the firing of genetically
targeted and spatially targeted mammalian neurons. It is used to study neuropsychiatric
diseases in vivo with mouse models of conditions including epilepsy, schizophrenia, and
Parkinson's.
TitleBCI2000: Software Resource for Adaptive Neurotechnology Research
Investigator
Peter Brunner, Gerwin Schalk
Institute
wadsworth center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The central nervous system (CNS) changes throughout life, and its interactions with the world produce activity-
dependent plasticity that enables it to acquire and maintain useful behaviors.
TitleBilateral Closed Loop Deep Brain Stimulation for Freezing of Gait using Neural and Kinematic Feedback
Investigator
Helen Bronte-Stewart
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Gait impairment and Freezing of gait (FOG), lead to falls, injury (even death), loss of independent living, and are
common in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD), affecting over 7 million people
worldwide.
TitleBreaking the Barriers to Microscale fMRI
Investigator
An Vu
Institute
northern california institute/res/edu
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
SUMMARY
The goal of this proposal is to develop technology that is both novel and disruptive in order to achieve
anatomical quality, dynamic B0 corrected, whole brain, microscale (≤ 500 µm isotropic) fMRI.
TitleBridging structure, dynamics, and information processing in brain networks
Investigator
Hannah Choi
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The mammalian brain is believed to be optimally designed for robust and adaptable computation of the
sensory inputs from the world, with respect to both its hardware (network structure) and software (network
dynamics).
TitleCell-Specific Visualization of Endogenous Proteins
Investigator
Tianyi Mao, Haining Zhong
Institute
oregon health & science university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
A major goal of the BRAIN initiative is to understand neuronal connectivity and plasticity in the context of
animal behavior. The functions and connectivity of neurons are established and manifested by their constituent
proteins. Monitoring the organization of individual proteins
TitleCellular mechanisms of hippocampal network neuroplasticity generated by brain stimulation
Investigator
John F Disterhoft, Joel L Voss
Institute
northwestern university at chicago
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
The distributed brain network of the hippocampus supports memory and related cognitive abilities. Disruptions
of this network occur in many neurological disorders such as epilepsy, brain injury, and neurodegenerative
disease.
TitleChromatin Plasticity, Transcriptional Activity and Kinetics in Developing and Adult Human Astrocyte and Oligodendroglial Lineages
Investigator
Nadejda Mincheva Tsankova
Institute
icahn school of medicine at mount sinai
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Summary
While glial research has advanced in rodent models, significantly less progress has been made in
understanding human-specific diversity of glia at a molecular and a functional level, both during development
and in adulthood.
TitleCircuit Dynamics for encoding and remembering sequence of events
Investigator
Anna Jafarpour
Institute
university of washington
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
We experience the world as a continuous sequence of events, but we remember the events as segmented
episodes (e.g., my sister’s wedding). During encoding, we associate a sequence of relevant events and segment
deviant events.
TitleClose-loop, spatially addressable multiphoton functional imaging
Investigator
Chris Xu
Institute
cornell university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
A major goal of brain research is to image the dynamics of groups of neurons during behavior.
TitleCognitive Restoration: Neuroethics and Disability Rights
Investigator
Joseph J. Fins
Institute
weill medical coll of cornell univ
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Approximately, 40% of TBI patients discharged from the hospital will develop long-term disability with 70%
experiencing chronic cognitive impairments that disrupt vocational, social, and emotional functioning.