Project description
Mapping synapses in the brain
Synapses are specialised connections between neurons, allowing the flow of information and communication between nerve cells. The diversity of synapses with respect to molecular composition and function contributes to the complexity of the brain and needs to be mapped to better understand brain function and related diseases. Funded by the European Research Council, the SYNNOVATE project has created a platform that enables the investigation of the molecular organisation of synapses throughout the brain. Researchers will use this platform to identify new features of the brain's structure as well as synaptic alterations associated with schizophrenia, intellectual disability, and autism. The synaptome map will also provide unprecedented information on memory formation.
Objective
Synapses are a hallmark of the brain, showing remarkable anatomical and molecular complexity, and central to the aetiology and progression of hundreds of brain diseases. The vertebrate brain has a vast potential synapse diversity arising from the differential distribution of combinations of proteins into individual synapses. This has led to the recognition that “synaptome mapping” needs to be developed where the expression level of individual proteins is robustly measured in individual synapses across the whole brain. We developed a novel and unique ‘synaptome discovery and imaging platform’ that links the molecular organisation of synapses with the spatial and temporal anatomical diversity of individual synapses and charts molecular synaptome maps across the brain. This platform enables routine and rapid quantification of genetically encoded molecular markers, with multiple functionalities, in almost a billion synapses in hundreds of brain regions of the mouse and generates statistically robust synapse catalogues and molecular maps of the brain. We have uncovered remarkable new neuroanatomical features and revealed a synaptic molecular architecture at the systems-wide scale. We have discovered this architecture is radically reorganised by mutations that cause schizophrenia, intellectual disability and autism. We have also shown these new methods can label activity-dependent reorganisation of single synapses at a whole brain scale, enabling the tracing of synaptic memory engrams. Our goals are to understand how synaptome maps develop and are reorganized by mutations causing cognitive disorders; examine experience-dependent map plasticity during development, following learning and electrophysiological stimulation in normal animals and those carrying cognitive disorder mutations. We also plan to develop computational approaches based on synaptome maps and freely distribute genetic and image analysis tools to promote synaptome mapping in the community.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesneurobiology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsmicroscopy
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsmutation
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsgenomes
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback.
You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantHost institution
EH8 9YL Edinburgh
United Kingdom