PROJECT SUMMARY
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has had great impact, helping patients with disorders such as Parkinson's
disease and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), and with great potential for other disorders such as
depression and Alzheimer's disease.
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 #
TitleThe Development and Human Translation of Temporal Interference Brain Stimulation
Investigator
Daniel Z. Press
Institute
beth israel deaconess medical center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TitleThe impact of spontaneous cortical activity on neural oscillations and behavioral performance: Evidence from high-definition tDCS and MEG
Investigator
Tony W Wilson
Institute
university of nebraska medical center
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary/Abstract
This proposal responds to RFA-MH-17-245, which requests applications focusing on the mechanisms and dose-
response relationships of noninvasive neuromodulatory methods.
TitleThe Neuronal Underpinnings of Non-invasive Laminar fMRI
Investigator
Orrin Devinsky, Essa Yacoub
Institute
university of minnesota
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
The six layers of cortex form distinct computational units that together govern the information flow and
processing required for complex behavior. Hence, unravelling the brain's computational strategies requires
understanding the layer-specific organization of the neocortex.
TitleToward 3D human brain-like tissues for targeting dysregulated synapse and proteostasis mechanisms in autism spectrum disorder
Investigator
Joshua Dean Erndt-Marino
Institute
tufts university medford
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
TOWARD 3D HUMAN BRAIN-LIKE TISSUES FOR TARGETING DYSREGULATED SYNAPSE AND
PROTEOSTASIS MECHANISMS IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disease affecting nearly 1/50 children in US with an
estimated $268 billion in annual costs.
TitleTransgenic mice and multiplexed, multi-beam instrumentation for large-scale optical experiments on brain states and ensemble cellular dynamics in behaving animals
Investigator
Mark J Schnitzer, Hongkui Zeng
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Abstract
The NIH BRAIN Initiative report emphasizes the importance of integrated technological approaches that
combine multiple, complementary and groundbreaking capabilities in a single, highly advanced instrument.
Optical methods have tremendous potential for integration, by combining massive reco
TitleTransparent graphene electrode arrays for simultaneous electrical and optical investigation of computations in the olfactory bulb
Investigator
Morgan A Brown
Institute
university of oregon
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary and Abstract
A major obstacle to understanding the link between behavior and neuronal activity is the difficulty of
electrophysiologically recording the activity of large neuronal populations without limiting visual access.
TitleUltra High Resolution Brain PET Scanner for in-vivo Autoradiography Imaging
Investigator
Georges El Fakhri, Roger Lecomte
Institute
massachusetts general hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
We propose to design, build, and evaluate the Scanner Approaching in Vivo
Autoradiographic Neuro Tomography (SAVANT), a next generation PET scanner for
ultra-high resolution imaging of the human brain using hardware advances
developed by members of our collaborative team to achieve unprecedented spa
TitleUltrasonic neuromodulation: establishing mechanisms and parameters to optimize targeted neuromodulation and control sensory side-effects
Investigator
Michael Ortiz, Shinsuke Shimojo, Mikhail Shapiro
Institute
california institute of technology
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract
One of the major goals of the BRAIN initiative is to develop technologies capable of interfacing with specific
neural circuits in the human brain.
TitleUnraveling constraints on motor cortical activity exploration and shaping during structural skill learning using large-scale 2-photon imaging and holographic optogenetic stimulation
Investigator
Vivek Athalye
Institute
columbia university health sciences
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
When learning new skills, experience with previously-learned skills can facilitate faster learning by constraining
behavioral exploration and shaping, a concept known as “structural learning”3,4.
TitleUnveiling the mechanisms of ultrasound neuromodulation via spatially confined stimulation and temporally resolved recording
Investigator
Ji-Xin Cheng, Xue Han
Institute
boston university (charles river campus)
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Ultrasound has been explored as a modality to modulate nerves and muscles back in the 1920s. A number of
recent studies have demonstrated the feasibility of using ultrasound to stimulate peripheral nerves, spinal cord,
and brain.
TitleValidating and extending optical tools for extended neural silencing
Investigator
Christopher Peter Ford, Matthew J Kennedy, Chandra L Tucker
Institute
university of colorado denver
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Conditionally silencing the activity of specific neural ensembles is a powerful approach
for mapping brain circuits responsible for specific behaviors.
TitleWhat are we Stimulating with Transcranial Ultrasound in Mice?
Investigator
Kim Butts-Pauly
Institute
stanford university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Abstract
Completely noninvasive neuromodulation using focused ultrasound (FUS) offers the promise of precisely
stimulating specific targets deep in the brain, at power levels commonly used for diagnostic imaging studies.
Having a working mouse model to study neuromodulation with ultrasound i
TitleWhole-brain recording into nucleic acids using template-independent polymerases
Investigator
Keith Edward Jaggard Tyo
Institute
northwestern university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
This proposal aims to record and store neural activity into DNA/RNA strands with high spatial and temporal
resolution, enabling neural activity recording densely within local circuits, yet broadly across large scale neural
circuits, and potentially across the entire brain.
TitleWireless High-Density Diffuse Optical Tomography for Decoding Brain Activity
Investigator
Joseph P Culver
Institute
washington university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
This grant will develop a wireless wearable high-performance, high-density diffuse optical tomography (DOT)
instrument for mapping of brain function in naturalistic settings.
TitleA BRAIN Initiative Resource: The Neuroscience Multi-omic Data Archive
Investigator
Owen R White
Institute
university of maryland baltimore
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative
promotes the development and application of technologies to describe the temporal and spatial
dynamics of cell types and neural circuits in the brain.
TitleA Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy Brain Data Archive
Investigator
Marcel P Bruchez, Alexander J Ropelewski, Simon C Watkins
Institute
carnegie-mellon university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
PROJECT SUMMARY
Advancements in the field of microscopy and imaging have pushed the boundaries of what
was once thought possible in many fields of research.
TitleA General Approach for the Development of New Cell-Type-Specific Viral Vectors
Investigator
Michael Eldon Greenberg
Institute
harvard medical school
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary:
Our limited ability to genetically access specific cell types within the nervous system constitutes a fundamental
impediment in our efforts to probe brain function and intervene therapeutically, particularly in species lacking
the well-developed genetic resources available in the mo
TitleA magnetic particle imager (MPI) for functional brain imaging in humans
Investigator
Lawrence L Wald
Institute
massachusetts general hospital
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
In this U01 grant we propose a 5 year engineering development effort to advance Magnetic
Particle Imaging (MPI) to replace MRI as the next-generation functional brain imaging tool for human
neuroscience.
TitleA microscope optimized for brain-scale 2-photon imaging
Investigator
Bijan Pesaran
Institute
new york university
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
This proposal presents an academic-industrial partnership to develop an instrument for 2-photon laser
scanning microscopy (2p-LSM) in non-human primates (NHP) for transformative basic science and clinical
translation.
TitleA novel platform for genetically-encoded optical neuropeptide sensors (NEONS)
Investigator
Matthew Ryan Banghart, Geoffrey A Chang
Institute
university of california, san diego
Fiscal Year
Funding Opportunities Number
Project Number
Project Summary
Neuromodulators play an important role in our life by dynamically adapting the brain to an ever-changing
environment.