UCLA brain researchers receive $4 million NIH grant to supercharge miniature microscope

The UCLA creators of a miniature microscope that can be mounted on the heads of lab animals to provide an invaluable view into the brain ’s inner workings have received a $4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop next-generation versions of their “miniscope. ” The four-year award, part of theNIH ’s BRAIN Initiative, will support the design, manufacturing and distribution of two types of new two-photonminiscopes that will allow scientists to peer much deeper into the brain than before. As they did with previous versions, the UCLA researchers will share detailed instructions on how others can build and operate their own devices. “These are very important tools that can be transformative for any neuroscience question that requires looking at the activity of large populations of brain cells in freely behaving animals,” said Dr. Peyman Golshani, a professor of neurology at UCLA and the grant’s principal investigator.  The UCLA researchers ’miniscope has been used in over 500 labs worldwide since the device was created and shared with other researchers about a decade ago. The open-source nature of theirminiscope“basically democratized” access to miniature microscopes, Golshani said, noting that similar devices were once sold by private companies for about a hundred times more than the cost of their model, whose mostly off-the-shelf materials total about $1,000 to $2,000.  Theminiscope, which is about an inch tall and weighs less t...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news