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Calcium-sensitive functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a breakthrough technique to follow brain-wide intracellular calcium dynamics defining multi-scale neuronal activity

Project description

Using calcium to image neuronal activity in the brain

Calcium is a reliable marker of neuronal activity, and calcium imaging has the potential to unveil important information about the brain network and its function. However, existing tools do not have the capacity to measure calcium dynamics at a large scale. BrainwideNeuroCaSens, an EU-funded initiative, aims to develop a novel calcium biosensor that can be exploited in functional magnetic resonance imaging. The biosensor will respond to calcium and help visualise neuronal activity in otherwise inaccessible deep structures and large regions of the mammalian brain. The generated tool has the potential to be employed for the investigation of brain-wide neural circuits in health and neurodegenerative pathologies.

Objective

Neuroscience’s ultimate goal of achieving a holistic understanding of brain function requires a cross-scale integration from single-cell physiology to global network topology. While remarkable achievements towards this goal have been made, brain research faces the challenge of incorporating molecular and cellular neurobiology into the context of macro-scale network activation. Calcium is a reliable marker of neural activity and calcium imaging is among the most widely used methods in modern biology, although the technology for measuring large-scale calcium dynamics remains limited. BrainwideNeuroCaSens seeks to pioneer magnetic calcium-responsive sensors in the context of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as a tool for a brain-wide interrogation of neural systems, providing an order of magnitude speed increase and a neurophysiologically precise readout, thereby far surpassing other noninvasive neuroimaging methods. These magnetic calcium-responsive sensors with physicochemical properties similar to optical imaging dyes, make use of the whole-brain, noninvasive imaging capabilities of fMRI and allow to detect translationally relevant, molecular precise correlates of neuronal activity in otherwise inaccessible deep structures and large regions of the mammalian brain. While focusing on dynamic functional connectivity relationships to study stimulus-responses and intrinsic network dynamics, the proposed experiments have significance for understanding brain-wide neural circuits in health and disease, offering pre-clinical potential for neurodegenerative pathologies. BrainwideNeuroCaSens’ offers a molecular precise readout of global neural network function and thereby opens the possibility for therapeutic strategies aiming at a restoration of network disruptions, for example in but not limited to, Alzheimer’s disease. BrainwideNeuroCaSens will bring the next-generation imaging technique of molecular fMRI to the EU and make the applicant pioneer in this field.

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Coordinator

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET MUENCHEN
Net EU contribution
€ 264 669,12
Address
Arcisstrasse 21
80333 Muenchen
Germany

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Region
Bayern Oberbayern München, Kreisfreie Stadt
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 264 669,12

Partners (1)