Funded Projects

Browse wide-ranging research at the frontiers of neuroscience supported by Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute grants, awards, and training fellowships.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Synthetic Neuroscience Grants
2024
A synthetic ultrasound neural interface for non-invasive and spatiotemporally precise chemogenetic and pharmacological neuromodulation

Controlling brain activity using chemicals and drugs is instrumental in neuroscience research, but current delivery methods for these compounds are imprecise. A proposed synthetic neural interface will allow for more controlled chemical and drug release by using ultrasound to precisely penetrate neural tissue.

Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience
Catalyst Award
2024
AI to model and boost brain repair and resilience during aging

This team aims to use the power of artificial intelligence to make new findings about brain aging, with the goal of boosting brain repair and resilience. They are particularly interested in spatial changes in the brain during aging. Their goal is to understand how aging renders the brain susceptible to injuries that accentuate neurodegenerative diseases.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neuroscience:Translate Award
2024
Assessing the feasibility of an autologous cell/gel therapy for spinal cord injury

This team has developed a new therapy for patients with spinal cord injury, involving injection into the spinal cord of patient-derived stem cells within an engineered protective gel. They will use their Neuroscience:Translate award to further test and develop this novel therapy in preparation for first-in-human clinical trials. 

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Funded research
2024
Assessing whether inhibitory rTMS improves brain pathology and language function in Self-limited Epilepsy with Centro-temporal Spikes (SeLECTS)

This team will use their Koret pilot grant award to study if language difficulties in children with epilepsy are caused by excessive connectivity in the brain. The team previously found that elevated connectivity is associated with poorer language, and that inhibitory transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can reduce connectivity.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Funded research
2024
Biomarkers of awareness and response to treatment in obsessive-compulsive disorder (BARTOC): Implementing EEG-based biomarkers of cognitive control in a pilot study of nitrous oxide inhalation vs placebo in OCD

This project is focused on developing EEG-based measures of cognitive control and conflict processing in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD is characterized by recurrent, intrusive, and distressing thoughts, and patients are often limited by rigid, inflexible behavioral routines as well as poor clinical insight into their illness.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Funded research
2024
Brain response to influenza virus infection in the lung

The immune system is subjected to neuroendocrine regulation and control by the brain. One such example is the induction of glucocorticoid (GC) in infectious diseases. GC is synthesized and released by the adrenal glands via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal gland (HPA) axis which is initiated from the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN).

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neuroscience:Translate Award
2024
Clinical translation of a new PET radiotracer for mapping innate immune activation in multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases

This team recently identified a selective biomarker of inflammation-promoting immune cells in the central nervous system. They will use their Neuroscience:Translate award to develop non-invasive molecular imaging strategies to distinguish between harmful (pro-inflammatory) and helpful (anti-inflammatory) immune cells in patients with Multiple sclerosis (MS).

Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience
Catalyst Award
2024
Clinically translating ultrasonic CSF clearing to enhance brain resilience

Recent data suggest that increased circulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to clear the brain and spinal cord of waste is associated with improved outcomes in aging and recovery from brain injury, suggesting that inducing CSF clearing could enhance brain resilience. However, a therapeutic modality for directly inducing CSF clearing has not been available.

Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience
Catalyst Award
2024
Convergence of signals for pruning at a synaptic receptor implicated in Alzheimer's disease

Memories are stored at synapses and circuits, which tragically are pruned and deconstructed in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Genetic mutations including APP generate high levels of soluble oligomeric beta amyloid (oAbeta42), leading to insoluble beta amyloid plaques - hallmarks of late-stage disease. Clinical trials have designed "plaque-busting" drugs assuming that plaques cause disease.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neuroscience:Translate Award
2024
Creating a pharmacologic stroke recovery therapy

This team has identified a promising protein-based therapeutic to improve stroke recovery.  The team will use the Neuroscience:Translate award to identify key components of this protein to maximize its therapeutic potential for stroke treatments.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Synthetic Neuroscience Grants
2024
Defining the temporal and spatial CSF secretome by TurboID labeling

The cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) influences the development, maturation, and aging of the nervous system in ways that are not fully understood. TurboID, a synthetically engineered enzyme, can label CSF proteins to track their sources and development, providing insight into the roles the CSF plays in development, health, and disease.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Funded research
2024
EEG markers of self-efficacy and self-regulation in chronic pain patients with and without heavy drinking

This project aims to identify brain-based EEG markers of self-efficacy and self-regulation, which are the two critical treatment targets for people with chronic pain and comorbid heavy alcohol use. Such objective markers will assist in accurate diagnosis and assessment of treatment responses, which may enable a precision medicine approach for chronic pain and substance use disorders. 

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
SIGF - Graduate Fellowship
2024
Engineering objective physiologic measures to characterize nonmotor aspects of Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a complex, heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorder whose prevalence is increasing rapidly. Not only do patients experience motor symptoms, but many experience debilitating nonmotor symptoms caused by peripheral degeneration in the autonomic nervous system, including atrophy of the vagus nerve, and the enteric nervous system.

Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience
Brain Resilience Scholar Award
2024
Evaluating the immunomodulatory role of circular RNAs in microglia
Neuroinflammation is common in several neurodegenerative diseases, with brain immune cells, specifically microglia, being a main driver of the inflammatory process. Understanding what triggers microglial activation and its pathways will lead to a better knowledge of inflammatory mechanisms involved in neurodegenerative disease pathology. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been studied extensively in the peripheral immune system due to their ability to induce innate immune responses.
Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Synthetic Neuroscience Grants
2024
First-in-class RNA sensors for studying myelin dynamics and disease

RNA sensors are a cutting edge tool in synthetic biology for probing complex molecular pathways and creating “smart” molecular circuits in cells. This team leverages state-of-the-art synthetic biology tools to understand how oligodendrocytes contribute to Alzheimer’s disease and other demyelinating disorders.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Synthetic Neuroscience Grants
2024
Genetically-encoded voltage integrators for stable tagging of activated or inhibited neural ensembles in vivo

A major goal in systems neuroscience is to discover how patterns of activity in neural circuits produce and regulate behavior. Using synthetic biology tools, this team aims to develop first-in-class genetically encoded voltage integrators (GEVIns) capable of sensing and responding to both activation and inhibition of neurons.

Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience
Catalyst Award
2024
Harnessing ketone metabolites for brain health and brain resilience

The ketogenic diet, fasting, and ketone supplements switch the body's fuel source from carbs to fats, a state known as ketosis. This switch can be good for your brain, helping to keep it healthy and resilient to damage. In ketosis, your liver makes a special fat-derived fuel called beta-hydroxybutyrate, or BHB for short.

Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience
Brain Resilience Scholar Award
2024
High-resolution profiling of Alzheimer’s brain resilience
Resilience to Alzheimer’s disease describes those rare individuals who exhibit normal cognitive function while harboring a high disease burden. Better understanding of the mechanisms that confer protection against cognitive decline despite high-level AD pathology offers potential therapeutic insights for preventing dementia in AD. Recent advances in the field provide a unique opportunity to explore the spatial distribution of molecules in the human brain at an unprecedented level of detail.
Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Interdisciplinary Scholar Award
2024
How do early life experiences shape the neural underpinnings of caregiver olfactory recognition?

The ability of an infant to distinguish caregivers from strangers is fundamental for survival early in life. Across many taxa, newborns use olfactory cues to recognize caregivers. Caregiver odors induce proximity-seeking behavior and alleviate stress in neonatal mammals, including humans. Since all altricial animals rely on parental care for survival and children with developmental disorders (e.g., fragile X syndrome and autism) often have deficits in the olfactory system, it is essential to understand the mechanisms for linking caregiver odors with affiliative behavior.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Interdisciplinary Scholar Award
2024
Interpretable machine learning to decipher gene regulation in brain development and disruption in disease

Brain development is a complex process where cells must self-renew and differentiate at the right place and right time. Gene regulation during development involves sequences in the genome which affect the expression of genes locally, and transcription factors, proteins that bind these sequences and activate genes throughout the genome. At active regulatory sequences and genes, DNA is accessible to these proteins, while inactive DNA is tightly compacted.