Data Science & Informatics

CRCNS US-German Research Proposal: Quantitative and computational dissection of glutamatergic crosstalk at tripartite synapses (1) Christine R Rose, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany (2) Christian Henneberger, University of Bonn, Germany (3) Ghanim Ullah, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA Project Description 1 Introduction and Background Transmission at chemical synapses is the central mechanism by which information is transferred between neurons.

PROJECT SUMMARY The maintenance and function of the nervous system depends on cell-cell interactions among neuronal and non-neuronal cell populations, which occur through physically binding cell membrane surface or secreted proteins, triggering signaling cascades that activate cell-type gene regulatory programs. The cell-cell interactome responds and regulates the microenvironment which is altered in physiological processes such as brain development and aging, or during the onset and progression of different neuropsychiatric disorders.

Project Summary/Abstract Cloud-based analyses and easily shared data formats are revolutionizing neuroimaging. We will develop software to fill gaps created by these two trends.

Project Summary Many advances in modern neuroscience rely on electrophysiological recordings of large neural populations (e.g. many hundreds of cells) or high-resolution measurements of animal behavior (e.g. from video). These datasets have unlocked a wide range of genuinely transformational scientific opportunities, as they enable us to draw reliable statistical inferences about individual animal subjects at precisely encapsulated moments in time. However, these statistical models are complex and non-trivial to implement in computer software.

Project Summary Categorizing individual neurons into different groups, or cell types, is a classical approach to studying the nervous system. With increasingly more tools being invented to observe the neurons, new criteria were created to characterize different aspects, or modalities, of the cells. While these modality-specific categorizations have enabled in-depth knowledge in neuroscience, the inconsistencies across different criteria leave data integration across modalities technically difficult.

Abstract In response to the BRAIN Initiative “Integration and Analysis of BRAIN Initiative Data” FOA, we propose further developing nTracer2, a cloud-based platform for brain image visualization and neuron tracing in the web browser.