Diffusional Landscapes for the Study of Neural Differentiation

用于神经分化研究的扩散景观

• 批准号: 1145949
• 负责人: Scott Collins
• 金额: $ 31万
• 依托单位: University of Maine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-08-01 至 2016-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1145949&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Diffusional; Landscapes; Study; Neural; Differentiation

During early development of the central nervous system, the global landscape and concentration of chemical species within the spinal cord serve to direct neuron differentiation and development. The chemical constituency and concentrations of myriad chemical stimulants within the spinal cord signals both the type of neural cells that will develop as well as provide a "trail of breadcrumbs" to direct the precise synaptic connections to other neurons. This research presents a microsystem that generates specific concentration profiles of multiply relevant chemical species to study the development and differentiation of neurons. Using micro and nanofabrication, a microsystem will be designed, fabricated, characterized, and used to generate chemical profiles of known chemicals that affect spinal cord development. An anthology of four mouse spinal cord chemical mediators will be studied: sonic hedgehog (Shh), bone morphogenic protein (BMP), retinoic acid (RA), and noggin, and the spatial and temporal histological distributions of resulting neural cells will be mapped to the imposed chemical mediator concentrations. The advantage of this approach is that cells can be studied in biologically relevant environments without the introduction of the myriad unknown and uncontrolled parameters found in vivo. This project will support the education and laboratory research training of both graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Maine in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary research project involving biological, micro/nano fabrication, and engineering methods in instrumentation and techniques. The project will also be highlighted in UMaine's "Consider Engineering" summer program for high school students and in several undergraduate and graduate level courses to introduce science & engineering initiates to interdisciplinary research. The microsystem will be extended within these programs/courses to encompass applications involving: cognition models, artificial intelligence, biocomputing, and neural networks.

在中枢神经系统的早期发育过程中，脊髓内化学物质的全球分布和浓度对神经元的分化和发育起着指导作用。脊髓内无数化学刺激物的化学成分和浓度既是将要发育的神经细胞类型的信号，也是将精确突触连接到其他神经元的“面包屑痕迹”。这项研究提出了一个微系统，它产生多种相关化学物种的特定浓度分布，以研究神经元的发育和分化。利用微米和纳米制造，将设计、制造、表征微系统，并用于生成影响脊髓发育的已知化学物质的化学特征。将研究一组四种小鼠脊髓化学介质：Sonic Hedgehog(Shh)、骨形态发生蛋白(BMP)、维甲酸(RA)和noggin，并将所产生的神经细胞的空间和时间组织分布映射到施加的化学介质浓度。这种方法的优点是，细胞可以在生物相关的环境中进行研究，而不需要引入体内发现的无数未知和不可控的参数。该项目将支持缅因州大学研究生和本科生的教育和实验室研究培训，这是一个合作的多学科研究项目，涉及仪器和技术方面的生物、微/纳米制造和工程方法。该项目还将在缅因州大学面向高中生的“考虑工程”暑期课程以及几门本科生和研究生水平的课程中得到强调，这些课程旨在向跨学科研究介绍科学与工程方面的启蒙人员。微系统将在这些计划/课程中扩展，以涵盖以下应用：认知模型、人工智能、生物计算和神经网络。