Single channel recording from small mammalian presynaptic nerve terminals.

人类的大脑是由神经细胞组成的，它们通过发送和接收被称为神经递质的化学信号来相互交流。这种形式的交流是由一组叫做离子通道的蛋白质严格控制的。这些离子通道蛋白的活性决定了化学信号的发送时间。因此，如果我们要了解人类大脑中的化学信号，我们必须了解离子通道是如何控制这种信号的。虽然有一些技术可以让我们测量离子通道蛋白的活性，但在大多数情况下，它们不能直接应用于化学信号最重要的区域：突触。突触是一个很小的区域（直径约为百万分之一米），它具有在神经细胞之间发送和接收化学信号的特殊功能。我们无法测量大多数突触离子通道活动的原因很简单，因为它们太小了。然而，我们通过应用纳米技术（研究直径约为十亿分之一米的物体的科学）的方法，在这一领域取得了重大突破。通过应用纳米技术所采用的方法，我们首次能够记录突触中离子通道蛋白的活动，从而从根本上提高我们对大脑化学信号的理解。这项技术最终将对研究大脑健康和疾病的研究人员产生广泛的影响。因此，该提案寻求资金来完善我们的方法以供普遍使用，并开始测量控制大脑化学信号的离子通道活动阵列的艰巨任务。

The human brain is composed of nerve cells that communicate with each other by sending and receiving chemical signals, called neurotransmitters. This form of communication is tightly controlled by a set of proteins called ion channels. The activity of these ion channel proteins determines when chemical signals are sent. Thus, if we are to understand chemical signalling in the human brain we must understand how ion channels control that signalling. Although there are technologies that allow us to measure the activity of ion channel proteins, in most cases they cannot be applied directly at the most important area for chemical signalling: the synapse. The synapse is a tiny area (about one millionth of a metre across) which has the special function of sending and receiving chemical signals between nerve cells. The reason we cannot measure ion channel activity at most synapses is simply because they are too small. However, we have made a major breakthrough in this area by applying methods used in nanotechnology (the science concerned with things that are about one thousand millionth of a metre in size). By applying methods adopted from nanotechnology we have been able to show that for the first time it is possible to record the activity of ion channel proteins at synapses and thus to radically improve our understanding of chemical signalling in the brain. This technology will eventually have extensive implications for researchers studying the brain in both health and disease. This proposal thus seeks funding to refine our methods for general use and to begin the enormous task of measuring the array of ion channel activity that controls chemical signalling in the brain.