BRAIN EAGER: Harnessing Light Sheet and Light Field Microscopy to Visualize Dynamic Adaptations to Neural Activity

BRAIN EAGER：利用光片和光场显微镜可视化神经活动的动态适应

• 批准号: 1650406
• 负责人: Dion Dickman
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Southern California
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-15 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1650406&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: BRAIN; EAGER; Harnessing; Light; Sheet

This BRAIN EAGER will support an interdisciplinary team of investigators to jointly develop and deploy optimized light sheet microscopy and novel genetically encoded probes to image synaptic function in the intact nervous system. This team will optimize a novel 3D imaging microscope, in which multi-photon light sheet illumination is combined with light field microscopy to permit a single snapshot to capture the full 3D image, enabling the team to visualize these probes with unprecedented speed and coverage. They will also develop new genetically encoded glutamate and calcium probes, targeted to defined synaptic compartments, to optimize signal magnitude and report synaptic activity with high sensitivity and fidelity. These innovations will be exploited to synergistically visualize synaptic structure and monitor glutamate and calcium dynamics in the intact Drosophila central nervous system. Although these tools could be used in a variety of settings in the vertebrate or the invertebrate nervous system, these will be first applied to address the fundamental relationship between sleep and synaptic plasticity. Although sleep is ancient, the essential biological function of this behavior remains a great mystery of science. This project will explore the exciting possibility that a fundamental function of sleep, operating at the level of individual neurons and synapses, is the homeostatic modulation of synaptic strength. Addressing this hypothesis has been beyond our capabilities because visualizing neural activity in the central nervous system during sleep-wake behavior has been limited in both speed and resolution. Through a combination of new genetically encoded probes reporting synaptic structure and activity and cutting-edge imaging approaches, this project will permit the imaging of synapses over time without perturbing the nervous system or the sleep-wake cycle. These test experiments will advance our knowledge of the complex, fundamental, and poorly understood signaling systems that orchestrate the homeostatic control of synaptic strength, and their modulation during sleep behavior. The education and outreach activities of the research team will be intimately linked with their research programs, and will include a research project with local inner-city Los Angeles high school students investigating sleep and circadian behavior. In addition, a new undergraduate course will be developed exploring the biological functions of sleep.

这种大脑急切将支持一个研究人员的跨学科团队，共同开发和部署优化的光片显微镜和新型的遗传编码探针，以在完整的神经系统中图像突触功能。该团队将优化新型的3D成像显微镜，其中多光子光片照明与光场显微镜结合使用，以允许单个快照捕获完整的3D图像，从而使团队能够以空前的速度和覆盖范围可视化这些探针。他们还将开发针对定义的突触室的新遗传编码的谷氨酸和钙探针，以优化信号幅度并以高灵敏度和忠诚度报告突触活动。这些创新将被利用为协同可视化突触结构，并监测完整的果蝇中枢神经系统中的谷氨酸和钙动力学。 尽管这些工具可以用于脊椎动物或无脊椎动物神经系统的各种环境中，但这些工具将首先用于解决睡眠与突触可塑性之间的基本关系。尽管睡眠很古老，但这种行为的基本生物学功能仍然是科学的巨大奥秘。该项目将探索令人兴奋的可能性，即睡眠的基本功能在单个神经元和突触的水平上运行，是突触强度的稳态调节。解决这一假设已经超出了我们的能力，因为在速度和分辨率上可视化中枢神经系统中的神经活动受到限制。通过新的遗传编码探针报告突触结构以及活动和尖端成像方法的组合，该项目将允许随着时间的推移对突触进行成像，而不会扰乱神经系统或睡眠效果周期。这些测试实验将促进我们对复杂，基本和鲜为人知的信号系统的了解，这些信号系统策划了对突触强度的稳态控制及其在睡眠行为过程中的调节。研究团队的教育和外展活动将与他们的研究计划紧密相关，并将与当地市中心的洛杉矶高中学生一起研究睡眠和昼夜节律行为。此外，将开发一门新的本科课程，以探索睡眠的生物学功能。