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
Neurosciences Interdisciplinary Scholar Awards
2025
Characterizing Goal-driven Dynamics Underlying Naturalistic Behavior

Understanding how the brain drives behavior is a key goal of neuroscience. Traditionally, the field has focused on simple behaviors, but recent research is shifting towards more naturalistic paradigms, such as navigation and foraging. This opens up exciting possibilities for studying natural behaviors and uncovering the neural mechanisms underlying them.

Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience
Brain Resilience Scholar Awards
2025
Early Entorhinal-Hippocampal Vulnerability and Recovery in Alzheimer's Disease
Before memory loss begins, Alzheimer’s disease disrupts communication between brain regions essential for learning. Brain Resilience Scholar Annie Goettemoeller’s research investigates how early circuit dysfunction spreads through the brain and explores whether restoring these connections can slow or prevent cognitive decline.
Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neuroscience:Translate Award
2025
EEG-IntraMap: Accessible deep brain insight for precision depression care

Depression affects over 300 million people worldwide, yet current treatments are often based on trial-and-error, with only one-third of patients improving with their first medication. Our team has developed EEG-IntraMap, an innovative software platform that transforms standard EEG recordings into precise measurements of deep brain activity. 

Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience
Catalyst Momentum Awards
2025
Mapping Cell-Type-Specific Lysosomal Content (renewed)
By integrating innovative lysosomal omics and ferroptosis-targeted interventions, this project aims to identify strategies to restore lysosomal function, protect against neurodegeneration, and enhance brain resilience. This is an extension from a Catalyst Grant Award.
Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neurosciences Interdisciplinary Scholar Awards
2025
Observing axonal transport with molecular resolution on molecular timescales

Neurons are cells that electrically transmit information about our surroundings to the brain, process that information in the brain, and transmit instructions for action to the rest of the body. Just like electrical cables, they are long and thin. To function properly, a neuron must move nutrients, waste, and organelles along its length.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neurosciences Interdisciplinary Scholar Awards
2025
Oncogene-Directed Virotherapy for Brain Cancer

Despite advancements in cancer treatment, the prognosis for brain cancer patients remains poor. Glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive type of brain tumor, is driven by genetic mutations and overexpression of growth-promoting receptors.

Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience
Catalyst Momentum Awards
2025
Predicting and promoting resilient brain aging trajectories (renewed)
This project combines brain circuit and molecular approaches with artificial intelligence (machine learning) to understand, predict, and manipulate individual differences by stratifying their behavioral trajectories, which can potentially be transformative in identifying ways to promote brain resilience. This is an extension from a Catalyst Grant Award.
Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience
Catalyst Momentum Awards
2025
Preserving Motor Engrams in Parkinson's Disease: Neural Circuit and Transcriptomic Studies and Strategies for Resilient Motor Control (renewed)
This project explores a novel hypothesis: Parkinson's disease (PD) impairs the motor engrams rather than just altering pathway balance. Using molecular, genetic, behavioral, and imaging approaches, this team aims to uncover how specific neural ensembles contribute to motor control. This is an extension from a Catalyst Grant Award.
Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience
Brain Resilience Scholar Awards
2025
Programmatic Activation of the Neurodegenerative TREM2 Pathway by TCIP1
Microglia, the brain’s immune defense cells, help clear toxic proteins, but their function declines with age. Brain Resilience Scholar Shaghayegh Navabpour’s research develops a drug-like molecule to enhance microglia’s protective abilities, aiming to slow or prevent the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience
Brain Resilience Scholar Awards
2025
The role of mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo1 in glaucoma pathophysiology
Increased pressure in the eye damages the optic nerve and leads to vision loss in glaucoma. Brain Resilience Scholar Julian Garcia’s research examines how activating a specific ion channel (Piezo1) modulates cell survival after optic nerve injury, and explores potential new avenues for glaucoma treatment.
Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience
Brain Resilience Scholar Awards
2025
The role of the frontotemporal dementia gene product Progranulin in the homeostasis of the neurodegeneration- associated lipid Bis(monoacylglycero)phosphate

The brain relies on Progranulin, a pivotal protein, to function smoothly and maintain overall health. When Progranulin fails to perform its essential functions, it can trigger severe neurological issues. In children, a complete malfunction of Progranulin can result in Batten disease, a devastating condition characterized by rapid neurological decline.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Neurosciences Interdisciplinary Scholar Awards
2025
Thermosensory Control of Multimodal Behavioral Adaptation and Optimization

Temperature is a significant factor that impacts all living organisms’ behavior and physiology. With climate change driving significant shifts in environmental temperatures, it is crucial to understand the mechanism by which animals adjust their behaviors to cope with these changes.

Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience
Catalyst Momentum Awards
2025
Understand the regulatory dynamics of “resilience networks” during development, healthy aging and disease models (renewed)
This team aims to advance their previous work in exploring how HDAC inhibition enhances neuronal resilience, revealing its protective effects across multiple stress paradigms in both C. elegans and mouse neurons. With key insights into its role in mitigating ER and endosomal stress, as well as uncovering a potential conserved resilience network, this team will advance this work and deepen understanding of neuroprotective mechanisms.
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 Awards
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
Koret Human Neuro Lab Pilot Grant
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
Koret Human Neuro Lab Pilot Grant
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
Neuroimaging Pilot Grant
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).