$8.3 million grant from National Science Foundation will help UCLA spread technology behind mini microscope

A tiny, do-it-yourself microscope — which can be built from instructions posted online — has opened a new universe to brain scientists in at least 200 labs worldwide, and the device has earned its creators at UCLA an $8.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation.When mounted on an animal ’s head, the “miniscope” enables scientists to observe neurons firing, and even the creation of memories. The five-year grant will allow the scientists to further refine their design to combine electrical and optical recordings, which will give them the ability to visualize how brain regions a nd large groups of brain cells work together as the brain senses, learns, plans and executes actions.A key feature of the team ’s grant proposal was that the researchers are making information about how to build and use the device available for free to other scientists.“Other research groups have taken our base model and added to it and are starting to publish papers based on what they’re discovering with it,” said Dr. Peyman Golshani, an associate professor of neurology at UCLA and the grant’s principal investigator. “It’s really taking off.”Using the device, scientists can compare the brains of healthy mice with mice that have certain neurological conditions. UCLA scientists, for example, are especially interested in using the miniscope to study why chronic seizures interfere with memory and  which circuits malfunction in autism.Leigh Hopper/UCLA HealthMiniscope de...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news