Advanced microscopy and behavioural approaches to study neurocircuitry and CNS function

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Central to the body's defence system is the immune response, triggered in response to pathogens including bacteria, parasites, and viruses. Key molecules in the immune system have been well studied and are known to be an important componet of the body's basic defences to pathogens. Recently, we have learned that the brain also responds to infection and pathogens and mounts its own immune response. This response is beneficial and protective, as is the body's immune response. The same molecules that were originally described in the body's immune system have now been identified in the brain and are important to the brain's immune response. For a long time, we thought that the brain was protected from the immune system, but in fact, not only are immune molecules produced in the brain during the brain's immune response, some of these molecules are present in the brain at all times. We are learning that these molecules may play important roles in how we think and learn. In this proposal we request equipment to monitor the daily activity and feeding patterns of mice that have altered immune systems. In addition, we request a microscope analysis system that will allow us to precisely map changes in brain anatomy that occurs during development. These tools are state-of-the-art systems that take current methods in behavioural neuroscience and neuroanatomy to the next level. The availability of these systems will provide unique and innovative training opportunities for the next generation of scientists and will arm them with sophisticated knowledge that is currently not available in Neuroscience training programs in Canada. Currently, there are few research groups that can directly link behavioural outcomes directly to the underlying neurocircuitry - support of our proposal will generate significant progress in this area of research and will help us understand how changes in the state of the immune system influence the development of the brain and how changes may occur in brain wiring.