Previous Pilot Grant Recipients

2019-2020 Pilot Grant Recipients ($25,000 each)

• Seeing through water using deep neural networks, Andres Babino (Magnasco Lab)
• A bioengineering approach to develop a laminated 3D cerebellar neuronal circuit for studying human cerebellar development and disease, David Buchholz and Hourinaz Behesti (Hatten Lab)
• Development of AAV-Mediated Approach for Rapid Mitochondrial Profiling of Discrete Neuronal Populations, Bianca Cotto (Heintz Lab)
• In-vitro modeling of human embryonic brain structure through optogenetic induction of polarizing signals, Riccardo De Santis (Brivanlou Lab)
• Using proximity-based labeling to study the dynamics of RNA localization and localized translation in neurons, Ezgi Hacisuleyman (Darnell Lab)
• Generation of a transgenic knock-in mouse to study GLUT4 brain function in health and neurodegeneration, Alexandros Kokotos (Ryan Lab)
• Localized Protein Degradation in Synaptic Plasticity and Neurodegeneration, Kai Liu (Steller Lab)
• Explore the neuronal basis of a robust rhythmic behavior in Caenorhabditis elegans, Qiang Liu (Bargmann Lab)
• Search for a novel dopamine function as a step-counting tool, Cheng Lyu (Maimon Lab)
• Transcriptional gates of memory consolidation, Andrea Terceros (Rajasethupathy Lab)
• Developing a Training System to Test Volitional Control of Vocal Production in Mice, Cesar Vargas (Jarvis Lab)

2018-2019 Pilot Grant Recipients ($25,000 each)

• Developing a K+-based novel biomarker for sleep in Drosophila, Sofia Axelrod (Young Lab)
• Optomechanical Stimulation for High-frequency Studies of Hair Cells, Florian Berger (Hudspeth Lab)
• GEClbow: A Molecular Strategy to Enable Ultra-wide Field of View Calcium Imaging of the Mammalian CNS at Cellular Resolution, Matthew Davenport (Vaziri Lab)
• Probing the neural mechanisms of uniquely human social cognition with ultrahigh-resolution intracranial electrocorticography, Benjamin Deen (Freiwald Lab)
• Identification and Analysis of Local Mitochondiral Populations in Dopamine Neurons, Benjamin Kolisnyk and Markus Riessland (Greengard Lab)
• Genetic code expansion to introduce site-directed infrared probes into optogenetic actuator ReaChR, Jordan Mattheisen (Sakmar Lab)
• Developing the social spider Anelosimus studiosus for molecular and behavioral neuroscience, Alexander Paul (Kronauer Lab)
• Decoding positive and negative valence in food-cue learning, Sarah Stern (Friedman Lab)

2017–2018 Pilot Grant Recipients ($25,000 each)

• Perceptual Modulation of Food-related Cues by Top-down Cognitive Processes, Estefania Azevedo (Friedman Lab)
• Analysis of RNA Expression in Human Brain to Test the Hypothesis that Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Can Trigger Alzheimer’s Disease, Shahar Barbash (Sakmar Lab)
• DNA-driven Assembly of a Biosynthetic Pathway with Sub-cellular Resolution, Victor Bustos (Greengard Lab)
• Developing New Experimental Tools for the Study of an Ant’s Sensory Responses in Isolation and in a Social Context, Asaf Gal (Kronauer Lab)
• Optimizing Transgenic Methods in the Zebra Finch: a Vocal Learning Model, Anna Keyte (Jarvis Lab)
• How Neuronal Voltage-gated Ion Channels Function at an Atomic Level, Chia-Hsueh Lee (MacKinnon Lab)
• In vivo Imaging of Brain Metabolic Rates by Hyperpolarized ¹³C Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Isaac Marin-Valencia (Hatten Lab)
• Precision Targeting of Enteric Neurons with a Photo-activatable Cre Recombinase, Paul Muller (Mucida Lab)
• The Role of Prefrontal Cortex in Top-down Memory Processing, James Niemeyer (Rajasethupathy Lab)
• Radial-glia Dependent Pioneer-neuron Guidance: Using elegans to Uncover Cells and Genes Driving Mouse Spinal-cord Assembly, Georgia Rapti (Shaham Lab)
• Transcriptional Cell Types from High-Throughput RNA Sequencing of Heterogeneous Tissues, Stephen Serene (Freiwald Lab)
• Targeted Optical Sensors to Investigate Selective Neuromodulatory Signaling, Andrew Siliciano and Annie Handler (Ruta Lab)
• Optogenetic Control of Mosquito Host-seeking Behavior, Trevor Sorrells (Vosshall Lab)
• Mapping Local mRNA Translational Regulation in Post-Synaptic Dendritic Spines using High-Throughput Co-CLIP, Xin Sun (Darnell Lab)
• Investigating the Neural Correlates of the Yerkes-Dodson Law, Inna Tabansky (Pfaff Lab)
• Towards Functional Photo-acoustics Imaging of Deep Brain Structures, Alipasha Vaziri (Vaziri Lab)

2016-2017 Grant Recipients

Project Grants ($100,000 each):

• Reconstruction of the Zebrafish Neuromast by Serial Blockface Electron Microscopy, Eliot Dow (Hudspeth Lab)
• Developing a Transgenic Ant Line for Functional Neuronal Imaging using GCaMP, Thomas Hart (Kronauer Lab)
• Dissecting Primate Social Brain Circuitry, David Hildebrand (Freiwald Lab)

Project Grants ($50,000 each):

• Characterization of a Novel, Uniquely Expressed Orphan Receptor that Controls Sensitivity to Oxycodone, Cannabinoids, and Nicotine, Ines Ibanez-Tallon (Heintz Lab)
• Noninvasive Electrophysiology on Dolphins: Primate Model of Neurodegenerative Mitochondrial Disease, Marcelo Magnasco (Magnasco Lab)

Pilot Grants ($25,000 each):

• Differentiation of Region-specific Human iPSC for the Study of Neuronal Vulnerability in Alzheimer’s Disease, Alona Barnea (Greengard Lab)
• Do Genetic Mutations Modulate the Molecular Elasticity that Underlies Hearing?, Tobias Bartsch (Hudspeth Lab)
• Dissecting Sensory-Motor Processing Using Virtual Olfactory Navigation, Raphael Cohn (Ruta Lab)
• Deciphering the Neural Code for Chemotaxis Behavior in C. elegans, Qiang Liu (Bargmann Lab)
• Imaging C. elegans Glia and Neurodevelopment, Alina Rashid (Shaham Lab)
• “MonkeySkype” – Face to Face with Primate Social Cognition, Stephen Shepherd (Freiwald Lab)
• High-Speed Volumetric Calcium Imaging in Freely Behaving Animals, Alipasha Vaziri (Vaziri Lab)
• Using Virtual Reality to Study Goal-directed Behavior in Fruit Flies, Vikram Vijayan (Maimon Lab)
• An Advanced Tissue-clearing Platform with Broad Adaptability for High Fidelity Molecular Interrogation of Entire Mouse Brains and Other Mammalian Nervous Tissues, Zhuhao Wu (Tessier-Lavigne Lab)
• Generation of a Comprehensive Atlas of the Mosquito Brain, Meg Younger (Vosshall Lab)
• Remote Control of Transcriptional Activities through Heat-inducible Protein Degradation, Xiaofei Yu (Friedman Lab)