Project description
Charting brain signalling with shadows
The brain is a complex organ which remains poorly understood. The EU-funded NeuroExcell project will utilise cutting-edge super-resolution shadow imaging techniques to minutely map the structure of an entire rodent brain. Using advanced fluorescence and computer modelling, cellular structures and the contents of extracellular spaces will be revealed as shadows. Researchers will also examine live tissue slices to glean clues as to how these structures and proteins in extracellular matrices orchestrate brain signalling. This will provide a never-before-seen view into how our own brains may function and will prove invaluable to the fields of neuroscience and cell biology.
Objective
NeuroExcell aims to reveal physiological roles of the ECS structure and dynamics in directly regulating neuronal signalling, by taking advantage of the innovative new Super-resolution Shadow Imaging (SUSHI) technique. It will elucidate the nanoscale structure of the ECS of entire mouse brain hemispheres at different planes of the brain. Inherently, it will reveal simultaneously all cells as analyzable shadows what will provide unprecedented ECS maps, to complement general existing cellular maps. The results will further clarify the distribution and duration of structural ECS dynamics across areas, and will disclose the relation between ECS structure, dynamics and protein distribution in the extracellular matrix. Investigating this in live tissue slices will further allow direct visualization and analysis of diffusional processes what will help to disclose the physiological roles of the ECS.
The fundamental nature of the results, and the advanced technological framework, will be of fundamental interest for neurophysiologists, glia cell biologists, and glymphatic system researchers, among others. NeuroExcell will be carried out in a multidisciplinary environment involving advanced fluorescence imaging methods, classic electrophysiological techniques, computational modelling, biophysical theory and biochemistry. For the project I will join an emerging neuroscience institute where I will further enhance and diversify my professional competences through advanced training and quality research, adding to my development toward becoming an independent research group leader.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
48940 Leioa
Spain