Core Facilities for Neurobiology at Brandeis

这是一项继续为布兰代斯大学核心设施提供资金的建议。这将使我们能够充分利用现已牢固建立的三个子组件：微阵列和FACS设施，成像设施和小鼠/转基因设施。它们是大量由NINDS资助的和其他校园神经科学相关研究项目的基础。我们还建议对现有的三个核心进行重大扩展，并建立第四个核心。微阵列/FACS设施将扩展到蛋白质组学，从而成为基因组学/蛋白质组学核心设施。成像设施将扩大到包括相关光和电子显微镜（CLEM）和超高分辨率冷冻荧光成像，从而成为成像/CLEM核心设施。小鼠/转基因设施最近增加了生产用于转染和转基因的慢病毒载体的能力，现在被称为转基因小鼠和病毒转染核心设施。最后，我们将建立一个新的计算核心设施，以支持大规模的神经模拟和计算生物学项目，作为大型高性能计算集群的一部分。这些补充将使布兰迪斯社区保持在技术的前沿，并确保我们能够继续产生令人兴奋和突破性的新科学。由核心支持的项目通过多个神经科学教职员工在大脑和神经元功能的基础以及与疾病相关的方面的共同兴趣连接在一起：细胞身份，突触传递和电路，可塑性，行为及其调节。拟议的研究将利用脊椎动物和无脊椎动物模型系统，重点是转基因动物。他们解决与广泛的神经和精神疾病相关的基础和应用问题，包括兴奋性障碍，如癫痫，睡眠，清醒和情绪障碍，神经发育障碍，如自闭症和Rett综合征，神经退行性疾病，如肌萎缩性侧索硬化症，以及长期和短期记忆障碍，如伴随阿尔茨海默病和精神分裂症的障碍。

This is a proposal to continue NINDS funding of a Core Facility at Brandeis University. This will allow us to fully exploit the three subcomponents that are now firmly established: a microarray and FACS facility, an imaging facility and a mouse/transgenic facility. They are the underpinnings of a large number of NINDS- funded and other neuroscience-relevant research projects on campus. We also propose major expansions of all three existing cores and the establishment of a fourth core. The microarray/FACS facility will be expanded to encompass proteomics thereby becoming the Genomics/Proteomics Core Facility. The imaging facility will be expanded to include Correlated Light and Electron Microscopy (CLEM) and ultra high- resolution cryo-fluorescence imaging thereby become the Imaging/CLEM Core Facility. The mouse/transgenic facility has recently added the capacity to produce Lentiviral vectors for transfection and transgenesis, and is now referred to as the Transgenic Mouse and Viral Transfection Core Facility. Finally, we will establish a new Computational Core Facility to support large scale neural simulations and computational biology projects as part of a large high-performance computing cluster. These additions will allow the Brandeis community to remain at the cutting edge technologically, and ensure that we can continue to generate exciting and ground-breaking new science. The projects supported by the cores are joined together through the shared interests of multiple neuroscience faculty members in basic as well disease- related aspects of brain and neuron function: cell identity, synaptic transmission and circuits, plasticity, behavior and its modulation. The proposed studies will exploit vertebrate and invertebrate model systems, with a strong emphasis on transgenic animals. They address basic and applied problems that are pertinent to a wide range of neurological and psychiatric diseases including disturbances of excitability, such as epilepsy, disturbances of sleep, waking and mood, neurodevelopmental disorders such as Autism and Rett Syndrome, neurodegenerative disorders, like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and disturbances of long and short -term memory such as those that accompany Alzheimer's Disease and Schizophrenia.