Image
Seed Grants catalyze collaborations between researchers from across the university for innovative, collaborative research projects in the neurosciences.
Funded Seed Grant projects
Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Seed Grant
2021
Rapid brain-wide optogenetic screening with a noninvasive, dynamically programmable in vivo light source
We aim to develop a noninvasive method to produce on-demand and dynamically programmable light emission patterns throughout the entire brain of live mice. The emission patterns can be controlled by brain-penetrant focused ultrasound and switched with millisecond precision for rapid brain-wide optogenetic screening of different brain regions.
Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Seed Grant
2017
Enabling faster and more responsive voltage imaging through computational biophysics
A computational biophysicist and a protein engineer will team up to improve voltage-sensing fluorescent proteins, proteins that can report electrical activity by changing their production of light. The goal is to visualize the electrical activity in neurons in real time.