HOUSTON, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded more than 5 million U.S. dollars to two Houston-based research teams to develop new tools to better understand the behavior of neural networks.
According to a news release published on Wednesday by Rice University of Texas, NSF awarded a five-year grant of 4.4 million U.S. dollars to a team of mathematicians, statisticians, computer scientists and neuroscientists from several research institutes, including Rice University, to spur the systematic, interdisciplinary research needed for a comprehensive, transformational understanding of the brain in action.
Another 0.8 million U.S. dollars went to a team led by Rice University engineer Jacob Robinson for the study of magnetic techniques to stimulate specific, genetically modified neurons in lab animals without restricting their behaviors.
The grants were part of NSF's Next Generation Networks for Neuroscience program, or NeuroNex, a component of the BRAIN Initiative.
Kresimir Josic, the principal investigator on the five-year grant, and a mathematical biologist at the University of Houston and also an adjunct professor of biosciences at Rice University, said that the initial work will involve using data gathered from the visual cortex of mice and later move to data captured in more complex situations.
He said that the interdisciplinary nature of the team will be central to meeting the goals of the NeuroNex project.
The innovation grant to Robinson's team will develop a technique they call "magnetogenetics." Their goal is to genetically modify select brain cells so that they respond to magnetic fields that can freely penetrate bone and tissue, Robinson said.
