Collaborative Research: Nanofabricated multisite opto-electrical probes for optogenetic stimulation and neuronal recording applications

1263987/1263785Li/MasmanidisIntelligence优点：这项提议将通过创新地使用纳米制造技术和设备组装方案来促进工程学和神经科学，通过可以对非常小的细胞组(~1到10)进行光遗传操作和电子记录的新的研究系列来促进神经科学。在本文提出的概念验证研究中，这些探针将被纳入与Pi？S共同进行的关于伏隔核强化学习神经机制的行为实验中，伏隔核是奖赏加工路径中的一个重要大脑区域。在联想奖赏学习任务中，光基因标记的神经元将被激活或沉默，并用光电极进行记录，允许它们的活动在特定的学习时期受到干扰。这些实验将有助于演示探测器的操作，并为如何在这一大脑区域动态编码有关食欲刺激的信息提供新的见解。具有无与伦比的光电子能力的神经探针的发展将对光遗传学和电生理学融入神经科学实验产生广泛的影响。更深远的影响：具有无与伦比的光电子能力的神经探针的发展将对光遗传学和电生理学融入神经科学实验产生广泛的影响。如果这里提出的发展战略成功，私人投资机构将寻求额外的资金机会，在商业设备铸造厂大规模生产这些工具。这一合作项目将为培养研究生和博士后学者提供一个高度跨学科的环境。此外，这两个PI将利用现有的大学项目让高中生和本科生参与研究工作。调查人员还计划将课程改进作为这项工作的直接结果，并计划实施K-12扩展计划。此外，还有许多额外的教育组成部分，包括不同机构之间的合作、神经科学社区的设备传播计划、K-12教育和扩展以及将高中生纳入暑期实验室项目、本科培训和研究机会、研究生培训、课程开发和跨学科交流。

1263987/1263785Li/MasmanidisIntellectual Merit:This proposal will advance both engineering, through innovative use of nanofabrication techniques and device assembly schemes, and neuroscience, through newly enabled lines of research in which very small groups of cells (~1 to 10) can be optogenetically manipulated and electrically recorded. In the proof-of-concept study proposed here, the probes will be incorporated into the co-PI?s behavioral experiments on the neural mechanisms of reinforcement learning in the nucleus accumbens, an important brain area in the reward processing pathway. Optogenetically tagged neurons will be activated or silenced and recorded with the optoelectrodes during an associative reward learning task, allowing their activity to be perturbed at specific epochs of learning. These experiments will help both demonstrate the operation of the probes, and provide new insight into how information about appetitive stimuli is dynamically encoded in this brain area. The development of neural probes with unsurpassed photonic and electronic capabilities will have broad impact on how optogenetics and electrophysiology are incorporated into neuroscience experiments.Broader impacts: The development of neural probes with unsurpassed photonic and electronic capabilities will have broad impact on how optogenetics and electrophysiology are incorporated into neuroscience experiments. If the development strategy proposed here is successful, the PIs will seek additional funding opportunities to mass-produce these tools at commercial device foundries. This collaborative project will provide a highly interdisciplinary environment for training of graduate students and a postdoctoral scholar. Additionally, the two PIs will use existing university programs to involve high school and undergraduate students in the research effort.The investigators also plan curriculum enhancement as a direc result of this work, and have a planned program of k-12 outreach there are numerous additional educational components, including collaboration between different institutions,a plan for device dissemination in the neuroscience community, K-12 education and outreach and inclusion of high school students in summer lab projects,undergraduate training and research opportunities, graduate training, curriculum development, and interdisciplinary exchange.