An award is made to the California Institute of Technology to purchase state-of-the-art equipment for a 7-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) instrument for brain imaging. This instrument will enable cutting-edge basic research, as well as research-intensive training, at the Caltech Brain Imaging Center (CBIC) aimed at investigating brain structure and function in a range of animal species. The research will engage more than a dozen different labs at Caltech pursuing basic scientific questions, including a large number of postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduates and high school summer students. Special emphasis will be placed on increasing the representation of women and underrepresented minority students in education and research. This includes Caltech's Ph.D. programs as well as its Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows program and WAVE program, which welcome students from outside Caltech and focus on increasing the participation of underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering and math. It also includes the Caltech Classroom Connection, a science education outreach program partnering Caltech scientists with K-12 teachers in the local public school system to provide summer research experiences for K-12 students. Additional educational impact will come from the use of this instrument in connection with courses. In addition, the MRI instrument will be made available to academic institutions in the Greater Los Angeles area. The insights into the structure and function of the brain obtained through this research and communicated through public outreach will contribute broadly to scientific literacy.
The specific goals of the supported research are to elucidate fundamental principles of brain structure, function and dysfunction; to test, develop, and compare synergistic technologies for investigating the brain; and to train the next generation of students and scientists in this endeavor. Specific aims will investigate the structural and functional connectivity of the brain, knowledge that is essential for formulating and testing computational models of brain function and allowing comparisons among species. Convergent technologies will also be used to investigate the brain, including the use of functional MRI, ultrasound and photoacoustic tomography. The research will develop the next generation of genetically encoded molecular probes for MRI, and will enable more precise imaging and manipulation of biological function at the cellular and circuit level. This research will leverage unique connections to studies conducted on Caltech's human MRI scanners, enabling novel advances in the study of brain structure and function across species. Results from the research will be disseminated in peer-reviewed publications and at scientific meetings.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
