IBN-9420249 Russell Jacobs This is a collaborative effort by biologists, chemists and computer scientists to collect images of the developing brains of small animals by developing high-resolution magnetic imaging (MRI) techniques which allow brain imaging in living developing animals. From these images atlases of the developing brains of the quail, mouse, and marmoset will be generated. These atlases will then be used for tracking the development of major neuronal pathways in the nervous system as a function of developmental age in these three species. To do this tracking, the researchers will develop special MR contrast agents that will mark individual nerve cells so that the evolution of individual cells within the intact nervous system can be observed. Detailed in vivo analyses of developing nervous systems are relatively rare and are of great scientific interest from an embryological and phylogenetic perspective. This Award represents a part of the NSF BIO Directorate's participation in and contribution to the FICC-Human Brain Project.
