Today’s Neuro News is focused on posts about BRAIN Initiative grants and their associated principal investigators, labs, and institutions.
Grants
Neural circuits in zebrafish
Principal Investigator: Mriganka Sur
MIT Neuroscience
Title: “Cortical circuits and information flow during memory-guided perceptual decisions”
BRAIN Category:
Dr. Sur and his team will combine a number of cutting-edge, large-scale imaging and computational techniques to determine the exact brain circuits involved in generating short term memories that influence decisions.
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Neuronal Subtypes By Cell Transcriptomics
Principal Investigator: Joshua R Sanes
Neuroscience@Harvard
Title: “Comprehensive Classification Of Neuronal Subtypes By Single Cell Transcriptomics”
BRAIN Category: Census of Cell Types (RFA MH-14-215)
Dr. Sanes and colleagues will use new methods of genetic screening to comprehensively catalog and distinguish different kinds of cells across species and brain regions.
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Mapping neuronal chloride microdomains
Principal Investigator: Kevin J. Staley
Neuroscience@Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital
Title: “Mapping neuronal chloride microdomains”
BRAIN Category: Tools for Cells and Circuits (RFA MH-14-216)
Using protein engineering technology to monitor the movement of chloride through inhibitory neurotransmitter receptor channels, Dr. Staley’s group aims to understand the role of chloride microdomains in memory.
Principal Investigators
Mriganka Sur
Professor of Neuroscience, MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Director, Simons Center for the Social Brain
Principal Investigator, Laboratory of Mriganka Sur
Dr. Sur studies the organization, development and plasticity of the cerebral cortex of the brain using experimental and theoretical approaches. He has discovered fundamental principles by which networks of the cerebral cortex are wired during development and change dynamically during learning.
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Joshua R Sanes
Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Director, Sanes Lab and Center for Brain Science
Key questions that Joshua Sanes is exploring is how are complex neural circuits assembled in young animals and how do they process information in adults? To understand how these circuits form, we mark retinal cell types transgenically, map their connections, seek recognition molecules that mediate their connectivity, use genetic methods to manipulate these molecules, and assess the structural and functional consequences of removing or swapping them.
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Kevin J. Staley
Professor of Child Neurology and Mental Retardation, Harvard Medical School
Unit Chief, Pediatric Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital
Director, Pediatric Epilepsy Research Lab
Staley focuses on neuronal ion transport and the spread of activity in neural networks. Research interests include epilepsy, synaptic physiology, and neural network activity. Research techniques used: single cell electrophysiology, in vivo radiotelemetry, ion-sensitive fluorescent imaging of ion transport and neural network activity, computer modeling.
Labs
Laboratory of Mriganka Sur
Principal Investigator: Mriganka Sur
MIT Neuroscience
The goal of the Sur Lab is to understand long-term plasticity and short-term dynamics in networks of the developing and adult cortex, and how disruption of any of these network properties leads to brain disorders. Development of real time, high-speed imaging, activity-sensitive dyes, and light-sensitive ion channels are currently fueling the Lab’s exploration of the varied and plastic networks these cells form.
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Sanes Lab
Principal Investigator: Joshua R Sanes
Neuroscience@Harvard
The Sanes Lab wants to learn how neural circuits are assembled in young animals and how they process information in adults. A particular focus is identification and analysis of synaptic recognition molecules responsible for the amazing specificity of connections that underlies complex neural processing. We use a combination of genetic, molecular, histological and electrophysiological approaches to address these issues. Our main model system is the mouse retina.
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Pediatric Epilepsy Research Lab
Principal Investigator: Kevin J. Staley
Neuroscience@Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital
The lab’s research goal is the development of new approaches to the treatment of epilepsy based on a clearer understanding of the necessary steps in seizure initiation and propagation. The two major themes in the lab are neuronal ion transport and the spread of activity in neural networks combining fluorescent imaging of network activity with computerized analysis and modeling to understand how normal and abnormal signaling progresses through neural networks.
Institutions
Neuroscience@Harvard
Neuroscience@Harvard
The Program in Neuroscience draws together neuroscientists from across Harvard. The physical home base of the program is located at the Longwood Campus of Harvard Medical School, in the Department of Neurobiology.
Research sites include the Longwood Medical Area, Cambridge Campus, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the McLean Hospital. The Center for Brain Science unites many neuroscience labs and houses the newly established Swartz Program in Theoretical Neuroscience.
