Funding News - Neurotechnology Research, Development, and Enhancement Sought

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) encourages grant applications to research and develop novel tools and approaches to study the development, structure, and function of the brain. Also encouraged are applications to significantly enhance existing technologies that are important to understanding the brain or behavior. This announcement is made together with 7 other components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).*

In biomedicine, new tools and approaches often make possible quantum advances in research on health and disease, and, sometimes, shift the manner in which such research is undertaken and results interpreted. Conversely, the complexity of living systems represents interesting challenges to researchers, providing ample opportunity for testing and expanding the limits of their science and technology.

Examples of hardware, software, and wetware that would be considered appropriate under this program announcement include: microfluidic systems for in vivo spatial and temporal controlled delivery of neurotransmitters and other biomolecules; proteome analysis arrays, proteome data storage, and analysis of proteome data from the nervous system; genetic approaches to study structure or function of neural circuits in animal models; tools for real-time analysis of neurophysiological events; genetic approaches to manipulate or monitor synaptic activity; amplifiers that are small and light enough to be worn by mice for recording neural activity from many neurons; tools, technologies, and algorithms for neuroprosthesis development; non-invasive optical imaging instruments; technologies to facilitate high throughput analysis of behavior; telemetry devices small and light enough to be worn by mice for transmitting data during behavior; software to translate neuroimaging data from one data format into another; and computational approaches to analyze video data.

For more information, potential applicants should contact Dr. Daofen Chen, Program Director, Channels, Synapses and Circuits Cluster, NINDS, Neuroscience Center, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 2131, Bethesda, MD 20892; telephone: 301-496-1917; fax: 301-402-1501; e-mail: dc342b@nih.gov.

*For a full list of supporting NIH components and a more detailed description of this program announcement, please visit the NIH web site at: http://grants2.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-04-006.html.