Project Summary: EsperImage, a startup company out of Washington University (WUSTL), will develop high fidelity, wearable, optical technology that transcends limitations of both previous optical neuroimaging and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tools to provide naturalistic brain imaging in adults and children.
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Neurological disorders affect many millions of people in the United States and throughout the world. Recent advances enable the development of adaptive neurotechnologies, powerful new technologies that interact with the nervous system to promote functional recovery. These technologies are inherently multidisciplinary: they involve neuroscience, biomedical engineering, electrical and computer science, signal processing, and clinical, ethical, and commercial domains. Very few people can function effectively across all these fields.
Project Summary / Abstract The methods of optogenetics enable light-induced, area-confined stimulation or inhibition of genetically targeted neurons, thereby bypassing key disadvantages of electrical approaches. As a result, optogenetics is now widely viewed as an essential tool in neuroscience research. The adoption of these methods by the community is rapidly increasing, in spite of the required use of an expensive, inconvenient collection of fiber optic cabling, ferrules/fixtures and external light sources to perform the experiments.
Project Summary / Abstract Understanding brain function is key to improving health care and advancing a number of scientific initiatives. The treatment of degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson’s, and ALS is becoming increasingly important as the current US population ages and life expectancies increase. The costs of Alzheimer's and other dementias is estimated at over $200 billion in 2016 alone, not to mention the human devastation that these diseases incur.
PROJECT SUMMARY This proposal responds to PAR-18-870 titled “BRAIN Initiative: Development Optimization, and Validation of Novel Tools and Technologies for Neuroscience Research (
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.
Abstract We propose to build a hermetically sealed implantable stimulation and recording system to enable closed-loop experiments while mitigating the need for percutaneous leads. The IRIS (Implantable Recording with Integrated Stimulation) is a fully implantable system capable of both stimulating and recording on large numbers of channels (96 channels). Our implantable technology will provide primate researchers with the ability to perform long-duration experiments without risking animal or investigator safety.
Good methods to interrogate, and ideally perturb, neural systems at the network level have been elusive until recently.
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 superconducting sensors (SQUIDs) but without the complexity and bulk required by cryogenic cooling. An OPM-based MEG provides further advantages such as lower cost and the ability to place sensors directly on the subject’s head.
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. In Phase I, a high performance head RF coil receiver array will be prototyped and SNR performance compared to an existing commercial product.
