This project was envisaged to give insights into a truly circuit-centric mechanistic understanding of the interaction between distinct 5-HT modulated cell types within the SC and shed light on their relevance for attention and higher cognitive processes. Due to an unavoidable change of host-institution/supervisor, and being carried out during the COVID-pandemic, these major delays, including a replanning/reshaping of the project, made finalizing the project within the given time-frame impossible. Nonetheless, due to the support of the Crick, my supervisor Dr Iacaruso, my colleague Dr Karapinar and the rest of the lab, the preliminary results collected, enabled us to secure further funding through an MRC grant. Thus, our objectives still hold. Utilising cutting-edge technologies and state-of-the-art experimental designs, will allow us to generate a detailed mechanistic model of neuromodulatory effects on cross-modal SA in the SC, something that we still lack. The project is not only intended to generate knowledge and mechanistic insights ranging from sub-cellular over neuronal circuits to the behavioural level but will also inform translational work aiding in the development of novel neuropsychiatric treatments. Due to the broad spectrum of the project, the interdisciplinary methodology and the novelty of the expected results revolving around the characterisation of 5-HT mediated signalling in the SC for the first time, the results will benefit researchers and clinicians from a variety of disciplines. Notably, our results will be of great interest for the wider neuroscience community, especially for neuroscientists working on 1) neuronal circuits involved in sensory processing, 2) 5-HT signalling across the brain, and 3) autism- or schizophrenia-related psychopharmacology. Our findings are also likely to be of interest in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Finally, we expect that the approaches and tools generated during the project will be of relevance to other disciplines, including structural biologists and biophysicists with an interest in subcellular signalling and receptor functionality. Altogether, in addition to displaying scientific excellence and competitiveness, potentially strengthening the European Research Area as well as worldwide science and health, the project and, most importantly, the creation of fruitful international collaborations beyond the scope of this project would promote inclusive and sustainable scientific growth with freely circulating knowledge and methodology around the globe.
