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
Interdisciplinary Scholar Award
2017
Combining electrical and optical measurements on voltage-gated sodium channel toxins

Ion channels in the membranes of neuronal cells are the key regulators of neuronal signaling. An ion channel works as a gate that can open and close to allow specific molecules to enter or leave the cell. One important type of ion channels are voltage-gated sodium channels (NaVs), which are essential for many processes in our brain.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Interdisciplinary Scholar Award
2016
Investigation of synapse formation by novel nanoscale imaging techniques

Synaptic junctions linking individual neurons constitute the fundamental building blocks of our brain. Understanding their inner working is crucial to unravel the mechanisms by which our brain processes information. However, imaging structures at a relevant sub-synaptic level is challenging and has often hampered advances in neuroscience.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Interdisciplinary Scholar Award
2015
The molecular and cellular basis of magnetosensation: quantum effects in biological systems

For decades we have known that a wide variety of animals use the earth’s magnetic field for navigation, although the means by which they sense it has remained a mystery. There is a long-standing idea that animals like migratory birds use small magnetic deposits in their beaks to act as a compass, however, this idea remains unverified and is currently questioned by many in the field.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Interdisciplinary Scholar Award
2015
Enabling cell-based therapy of spinal cord injury through injectable hydrogels

Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes permanent damage to about 12,000 new patients in the US each year, primarily young adults. A common result of SCI is paralysis, and unfortunately, less than 1% of SCI patients have full neurological recovery by the time of hospital discharge.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Interdisciplinary Scholar Award
2015
Simultaneous 15O-PET and MRI of cerebral blood flow and cerebrovascular reserve

Continuous blood flow to the brain is needed for neural tissues to survive. Noninvasive imaging of cerebral blood flow (CBF) in humans is challenging, but is critically useful to understand normal brain physiology and to help patients with cerebrovascular disorders such as stroke.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Interdisciplinary Scholar Award
2015
Genomic analysis of the gene regulatory landscape of the developing neocortex

This research seeks to understand how our genes encode the instructions for neurons in the neocortex to properly arise during normal brain development. This knowledge will allow scientists to understand how genetic mutations perturb development leading to human disease.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Interdisciplinary Scholar Award
2015
Determining the microstructural basis of diffusion MRI

The aim of this project is to improve the accuracy and reliability of dMRI fiber tracking through comparison with a gold standard that unambiguously relates the measured water diffusion patterns to the underlying tissue structure.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Big Ideas in Neuroscience Award
2015
NeuroChoice: Optimizing Choice - from neuroscience to public policy
This proposal brings together faculty from diverse disciplines to deepen our understanding of the neural mechanisms supporting choice, and extend this knowledge to optimize choices related to addiction and investment. This consilience will require new conceptual and experimental tools designed to bridge historically distant fields of inquiry. Our team aims to transform the scientific understanding of choice, and to translate relevant knowledge to promote more optimal decision-making.
Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Seed Grant
2015
Brain mechanisms of spatial reasoning in mathematics
We aim to understand how brain mechanisms of spatial reasoning are brought into play during symbolic mathematical cognition and to identify individual differences in these mechanisms that co-vary with mathematical ability and mathematical experience.
Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
Seed Grant
2015
Creating an advanced transgenic animal model of autism

Autism is a highly genetic developmental brain disorder which is characterized by social impairments. Autism affects 1 in 68 US children, with an annual cost in the US of $250 billion dollars. Unfortunately, the basic biology of autism remains poorly understood.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
SIGF - Graduate Fellowship
2015
Understanding cellular responses induced by chronic implantation of electrodes using a novel human neural differentiation platform

Electrodes implanted in the brain have great potential, with applications in neurodegenerative disease, brain-computer interfaces, and more. However, the presence of electrodes in brain tissue causes a response known as gliosis, in which a scar forms around the electrode, reducing its effectiveness and access to neurons.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
EPFL-Stanford Exchange
2017
High-speed nanomechanical probing of auditory mechano-sensitive cells

Our ability to detect and interpret sounds relies on specialized sensory cells within the snail-shaped hearing organ of the inner ear—the cochlea. These hair cells sense physical movement and then convert that mechanical stimulus into a biological signal that we perceive as sound. These mechano-sensory cells perform this task within microseconds and can do so for sub-nanomechanical stimuli.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
EPFL-Stanford Exchange
2017
Quantitative imaging for multi-scale modeling of neurological diseases

My proposed visit to the Van De Ville lab is centered on the idea to expand our methods beyond brain tumors to other neurological diseases using the Van De Ville lab’s expertise in neuro-imaging. Imaging genomics has been focused mainly on oncology; however, other neurological diseases can be studied in the same way.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
EPFL-Stanford Exchange
2017
Biologically plausible neural algorithms for learning structured sequences

Humans naturally learn to generate and process complicated sequential patterns. For example, a concert pianist can learn an enormous repertoire of memorized music. In neuroscience, it is widely thought that synaptic plasticity – the process by which the connections between neurons change response to experience – underlies such remarkable behavior.

Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
SIGF - Graduate Fellowship
2017
Engineering versatile deep neural networks that model cortical flexibility

In the course of everyday functioning, animals (including humans) are constantly faced with real-world environments in which they are required to shift unpredictably between multiple, sometimes unfamiliar, tasks. But how brains support this rapid adaptation of decision making schema, and how they allocate resources towards learning novel tasks is largely unknown both neuroscientifically and algorithmically.