Cortical microcircuiltry after traumatic brain injury: molecules to networks

交通事故、意外跌倒和暴力袭击可能会对人的大脑造成损害：移动、感觉、说话、形成记忆和判断的能力可能会立即丧失。修复这种损伤通常超出了我们目前的治疗能力。神经细胞在撞击后断开连接，大脑的某些部分无法相互沟通。然而，一些细胞设法建立新的接触，某种程度的恢复可以出现，尽管它永远不会完成。哪些神经细胞对恢复很重要？这些断开的细胞发生了什么，为什么有些细胞成功而有些细胞无法建立新的连接？是记忆、运动和感觉失去了无法修复，还是我们可以恢复失去的功能？我们必须回答这些问题，以改善那些几乎没有治疗选择的患者的状况。在这个项目中，我们将使用最先进的技术来可视化创伤后神经细胞如何以及何时失去连接并重新获得彼此沟通的能力。我们将开发新的方法，将计算机科学、医学和生物学的科学家聚集在一起，了解哪些神经细胞需要刺激才能恢复。然后，我们将寻找促进这种复苏的方法。”我们将筛选对受损神经细胞有积极再生作用的药物，从而可用于治疗创伤性脑损伤。我们还将研究新的方法来预测复苏的成功程度。我们的长期目标是将所有这些信息整合到一个连贯的康复计划中，针对严重受损的患者，帮助他们恢复大脑和精神的完整性。

Traffic accidents, accidental falls and violent attacks may result in the damage to a person’s brain: the ability to move, feel, speak, form memories and judgments can be lost at once. Repairing this damage is often beyond our current therapeutic abilities. Nerve cells become disconnected following the impact and parts of the brain become unable to communicate with each other. Yet some cells manage to establish new contacts and some level of recovery can arise although it is never complete. Which nerve cells are important for recovery? What happens to those disconnected cells, and why some do some succeed and others fail at making new connections? Are memories, movements, and feelings lost beyond repair, or can we restore lost functions? We have to answer these questions to improve the condition of those patients for whom there are few treatment options. In this project, we will use the most advanced technologies available for visualizing how and when nerve cells lose connections after trauma and regain the ability to communicate with each other. We will develop new methods, bringing together scientists from computer science, medicine and biology to understand which nerve cells need to be stimulated for recovery to happen. Then, we will look for ways to promote such recovery. We will screen for drugs that have a positive regenerative effect on damaged neural cells and can therefore be used in the treatment of traumatic brain injuries. We will also study new ways to predict how successful the recovery will be. Our long-term goal is to funnel all this information into a coherent rehabilitation program aimed at severely impaired patients and help them to regain integrity of brain and mind.