NeuroNex Innovation Award: A National Resource for Mesoscale and Connectomic Brain Mapping

NeuroNex 创新奖：中尺度和连接组脑图谱的国家资源

• 批准号: 1707405
• 负责人: Narayanan Kasthuri
• 金额: $ 80万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-01 至 2020-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1707405&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NeuroNex; Innovation; Award; National; Resource

Mapping brains at arbitrary scales from the cellular composition of entire brains to reconstructing every synapse is a powerful tool for understanding brain function and dysfunction. However, the financial, engineering and computational barriers to new brain mapping technologies are far beyond the reach of most laboratories and even universities and institutions. A NeruoHub at a national lab, Argonne National Lab (ANL), could provide widespread access to such technologies. Specifically, the Hub will leverage the brightest hard X-ray source and one of the fastest computers at ANL, to provide mesoscale maps that detail the locations of every cell, their shapes and ultimately their connections with each other in large volumes to entire brains. The Hub will craft these technologies for brain mapping across diverse species, specifically the nervous system of the octopus. Enabling comparative studies across brain regions and species like the octopus will provide insights into what is general and what is idiosyncratic, and can reveal novel solutions when applied to species with distinctive perceptual or behavioral capabilities. Finally, the Hub will nurture and develop the relationship between neuroscience and the national lab system. For decades, many other fields of science have benefitted from strong collaborative relationships with the national lab system, leveraging large-scale resources to significantly advance their respective fields. Neuroscience has not. The Hub will establish the first pipeline for providing access and introduction to the broader neuroscience and national lab communities, paving the way for future collaborations. The technical approach is to develop sample preparation protocols for staining large volumes to entire octopus brains with heavy metals (e.g. osmium, lead, and uranium), embedding in plastic, and imaging with synchrotron source micro- and nano-x-ray microscopy followed by automated serial section electron microscopy. Development of new protocols will leverage existing protocols and imaging approaches for mammalian brains while also developing capabilities at ANL for 100nm resolution projection x-ray microscopy. Where possible, reconstructions of neurons and their processes from micro- and nano-X-ray datasets will be validated with automated large volume serial electron microscopy. In tandem existing machine learning algorithms used for tracing neurons and their processes will be scaled onto Argonne High Performance Computers for analyses of X-ray datasets.

从整个大脑的细胞组成到重建每个突触，以任意尺度绘制大脑是理解大脑功能和功能障碍的强大工具。 然而，新的大脑图谱技术的财政、工程和计算障碍远远超出了大多数实验室甚至大学和机构的能力范围。在一个国家实验室，阿贡国家实验室（ANL）的NeruoHub可以提供对这些技术的广泛访问。具体来说，该中心将利用最亮的硬X射线源和ANL最快的计算机之一，提供详细描述每个细胞位置、形状以及最终与整个大脑大量相互连接的中尺度地图。 该中心将制作这些技术，用于不同物种的大脑映射，特别是章鱼的神经系统。 跨大脑区域和物种（如章鱼）的比较研究将提供关于什么是普遍的，什么是特殊的见解，并可以揭示新的解决方案，当应用于具有独特感知或行为能力的物种时。最后，该中心将培育和发展神经科学与国家实验室系统之间的关系。几十年来，许多其他科学领域都受益于与国家实验室系统的强大合作关系，利用大规模资源显着推进各自的领域。神经科学没有。该中心将建立第一个管道，为更广泛的神经科学和国家实验室社区提供访问和介绍，为未来的合作铺平道路。 技术方法是开发样品制备方案，用于用重金属（例如锇、铅和铀）对整个章鱼大脑进行大量染色，包埋在塑料中，并用同步辐射源显微和纳米X射线显微镜成像，然后进行自动连续切片电子显微镜。 新协议的开发将利用现有的协议和哺乳动物大脑的成像方法，同时也开发ANL的100 nm分辨率投影X射线显微镜的能力。在可能的情况下，将使用自动化大体积连续电子显微镜验证从微米和纳米X射线数据集重建神经元及其过程。现有的用于追踪神经元及其过程的机器学习算法将被扩展到阿贡高性能计算机上，用于分析X射线数据集。