NeuroNex Innovation Award: A National Resource for Mesoscale and Connectomic Brain Mapping

NeuroNex 创新奖：中尺度和连接组脑图谱的国家资源

• 批准号: 1707405
• 负责人: Narayanan Kasthuri
• 金额: $ 80万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-01 至 2020-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1707405&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NeuroNex; Innovation; Award; National; Resource

Mapping brains at arbitrary scales from the cellular composition of entire brains to reconstructing every synapse is a powerful tool for understanding brain function and dysfunction. However, the financial, engineering and computational barriers to new brain mapping technologies are far beyond the reach of most laboratories and even universities and institutions. A NeruoHub at a national lab, Argonne National Lab (ANL), could provide widespread access to such technologies. Specifically, the Hub will leverage the brightest hard X-ray source and one of the fastest computers at ANL, to provide mesoscale maps that detail the locations of every cell, their shapes and ultimately their connections with each other in large volumes to entire brains. The Hub will craft these technologies for brain mapping across diverse species, specifically the nervous system of the octopus. Enabling comparative studies across brain regions and species like the octopus will provide insights into what is general and what is idiosyncratic, and can reveal novel solutions when applied to species with distinctive perceptual or behavioral capabilities. Finally, the Hub will nurture and develop the relationship between neuroscience and the national lab system. For decades, many other fields of science have benefitted from strong collaborative relationships with the national lab system, leveraging large-scale resources to significantly advance their respective fields. Neuroscience has not. The Hub will establish the first pipeline for providing access and introduction to the broader neuroscience and national lab communities, paving the way for future collaborations. The technical approach is to develop sample preparation protocols for staining large volumes to entire octopus brains with heavy metals (e.g. osmium, lead, and uranium), embedding in plastic, and imaging with synchrotron source micro- and nano-x-ray microscopy followed by automated serial section electron microscopy. Development of new protocols will leverage existing protocols and imaging approaches for mammalian brains while also developing capabilities at ANL for 100nm resolution projection x-ray microscopy. Where possible, reconstructions of neurons and their processes from micro- and nano-X-ray datasets will be validated with automated large volume serial electron microscopy. In tandem existing machine learning algorithms used for tracing neurons and their processes will be scaled onto Argonne High Performance Computers for analyses of X-ray datasets.

从整个大脑的细胞组成中以任意尺度绘制大脑以重建每个突触是理解大脑功能和功能障碍的强大工具。 但是，新的大脑图技术的财务，工程和计算障碍远远超出了大多数实验室，甚至大学和机构的范围。国家实验室Argonne National Lab（ANL）的Neruohub可以广泛地访问此类技术。具体而言，集线器将利用ANL上最亮的硬X射线源和最快的计算机之一，以提供中尺度图，以详细介绍每个单元的位置，它们的形状，最终与彼此之间的连接，并以大量的数量与整个大脑相互连接。 枢纽将制作这些技术，用于跨不同物种的大脑映射，特别是章鱼的神经系统。 在大脑区域和章鱼之类的物种上启用比较研究将提供有关一般性和特质的见解，并且当应用于具有独特感知或行为能力的物种时，可以揭示新的解决方案。最后，枢纽将培养和发展神经科学与国家实验室系统之间的关系。几十年来，许多其他科学领域都受益于与国家实验室系统的牢固合作关系，利用大规模的资源来大大推动其各自的领域。神经科学还没有。该枢纽将建立第一个为更广泛的神经科学和国家实验室社区提供访问和介绍的管道，为将来的合作铺平道路。 技术方法是制定样品制备方案，以用重金属（例如osmium，铅和铀）染色大容量，嵌入塑料中，并用同步源微观和纳米-X射线显微镜进行成像，然后进行自动化的缝隙电子显微镜。 开发新协议将利用哺乳动物大脑的现有协议和成像方法，同时还可以在ANL上开发100nm分辨率投影X射线显微镜的功能。在可能的情况下，将使用自动大量串行电子显微镜验证神经元的重建及其从微和纳米X射线数据集进行的过程。在串联中，用于追踪神经元的机器学习算法及其过程将缩放到Argonne高性能计算机上，以分析X射线数据集。