Operations and Maintenance Support of the Neurophotonics Centre

神经光子学中心是同类最先进的国家设施之一，旨在支持先进的生物光子学方法，致力于了解大脑、发展脑部疾病的诊断和光疗。该中心将从东海岸到西海岸的科学家和工作人员聚集在一起，开发和使用整合神经科学和光子学的最具创新性的方法。 该基金位于魁北克大学圣徒学院内，在过去10年中已从加拿大创新基金会(CFI)及其合作伙伴、魁北克政府、NSERC、CIHR、加拿大卓越研究教席计划和Brain Canada获得了超过9500万美元的资金，用于其核心活动的开发、维护和支持。 神经光子学中心的使命是开发未来的方法，帮助解开大脑的奥秘，并向加拿大各地的科学家提供这些工具。它还致力于培训新一代科学家，他们能够开发必要的技术来解决与大脑相关的未解决的功能和障碍。自2007年以来，该中心已经主办了两个研究培训项目(CIHR神经物理学和NSERC Create in Biopoptonics)，支持了350多名学生和博士后的培训。它还举办了一年一度的神经光子学前沿暑期学校，提供神经科学、光学-光子学、工程学和化学接口的HQP实践培训。多年来，来自15个国家的200多名博士生和博士后通过竞争选拔参加了我们的暑期学校。 该中心目前占地3000平方米。它包括6间洁净室、46间显微镜间、湿法实验室、冷冻室、组织培养室、组织室和一个仪器设计车间。该中心进行的研究范围从追踪突触上的单个神经受体到对行为动物的活体成像、光度测量和光干预。开发和使用基于光的工具来探测、刺激和控制神经元和神经回路是该中心所有研究人员的共同点。该中心开发了几项供社区使用的新技术，包括微型光学电极、超分辨率和全息技术、新型非线性显微镜、集成无线设备和图像分析方法。 为神经光子学中心获得的运营资金使我们的设备维修、升级和服务合同以及我们技术平台的日常运营得以实现。在这一应用中，我们正在为以下方面寻求资金支持：i)培训总部基地人员--这是中心最重要的任务之一；ii)开发和操作新颖独特的集成光学系统；iii)大数据和图像/信号分析。

The Neurophotonics Centre is a one of its kind, state-of-the-art national facility to support advanced Biophotonics approaches dedicated to the understanding of the brain, the development of diagnostics for brain disorders and phototherapy. The Centre brings together scientists and staff from coast to coast to develop and use the most innovative methods integrating neuroscience and photonics. The Facility, located within the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Québec, has received over 95M$ in funding in the last 10 years for its development, maintenance and support of its core activities from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and partners, the Quebec Government, NSERC, CIHR, the Canada Excellence Research Chair program and Brain Canada. The mission of the Neurophotonics Centre is to develop the approaches of tomorrow to help solve the mysteries of the brain and to make available these tools to scientists across Canada. It is also dedicated to the training of a new generation of scientists capable of developing the necessary technology to tackle unsolved brain-related function and disorders. Since 2007, the Centre has hosted two research training programs (CIHR Neurophysics and NSERC CREATE in Biophotonics), supporting the training of more than 350 students and postdocs. It has also been hosting a yearly Frontiers in Neurophotonics Summer school, which provides hands on training of HQP at the interface of neuroscience, optics-photonics, engineering and chemistry. Over the years, over 200 PhD students and postdocs from 15 countries, selected on a competitive basis, have attended our Summer school. The Centre presently occupies 3,000 m2. It includes 6 clean rooms, 46 microscopy rooms, wet labs, cold rooms, tissue culture rooms, histology rooms, and a workshop for instrument design. Research conducted in the Centre ranges from the tracking of individual neuroreceptors at synapses to in vivo imaging, photometry and photo-intervention in behaving animals. The development and use of light-based tools to probe, stimulate, and control neurons and neural circuits is the common denominator of all researchers working in the Centre. Several new technologies have been developed at the Centre for use by the community, including micro-optrodes, super-resolution and holography techniques, novel non-linear microscopies, integrated wireless devices and image analysis methods. Operating funds obtained for the Neurophotonics Centre have enabled equipment repairs, upgrades, and service contracts, and daily operations of our technology platforms. In this application, we are seeking financial support for: i) the training of HQPs —one of the most important missions of the Centre—; ii) development and operation of novel and unique integrated optical systems; iii) big-data and image/signal analysis.