Update (April 8, 2024): 的 National Institutes of Health New Innovator Award to G. 斯特凡诺Brigidi博士.D. 在2023年8月1日被终止.
的 National Institutes of Health (国家卫生研究院) has awarded grants to three 大发娱乐 scientists through its competitive High-Risk, High-Reward 研究 (HRHR) program that funds highly innovative 和 unusually impactful biomedical or behavioral research proposed by extraordinarily creative scientists.
贾斯汀·英格利希博士.D., 生物化学助理教授； 吉姆·海斯博士.D., assistant professor of 神经生物学; 和 斯特凡诺Brigidi博士.D., assistant professor of 神经生物学 are among 64 recipients of the 2021 国家卫生研究院 Director’s New Innovator Award. 的 奖, 由HRHR项目资助, supports unusually innovative research by early career scientific investigators.
“我向李博士致以最衷心的祝贺. Brigidi， Heys和English，”Willard Dere说.D.他是uu of U Health负责研究的副总裁. “Discovery 和 innovation are foundational elements for advancing human health. 的 creativity of these talented scientists is exciting to see 和 exemplifies the high-quality research at U of U Health.“
的 three U of U Health projects will explore the molecular underpinnings of how the world shapes us.
发现大发娱乐的细胞如何解读他们的世界 贾斯汀·英格利希博士.D.
大发娱乐体内的细胞有受体蛋白. 这些受体就像收音机一样, converting signals they receive into instructions our cells can underst和. 大发娱乐身体的每个细胞都含有成千上万个这样的受体, 每个人都转到不同的电台, 发出不和谐的指令. Determining which instructions result in good health or disease requires that we change the volume of a receptor, 这是大发娱乐到现在还无法完成的壮举.
English engineers the tools necessary to control the volume of individual receptors. In doing so, he aims to determine which are important for specific biological processes. 利用他的新方法来进化工程蛋白, he is creating light-activated tools to stimulate or inhibit specific receptors. 通过调节特定受体的体积, 他试图理解, "受体是如何塑造大发娱乐的.”
连接时间和记忆 ——吉姆·海斯博士.D.
想象一下在高峰时间开车去上班. 一条路线大约需要一个小时. Another route, which is less direct 和 involves driving farther, only takes 40 minutes. 你会选择哪一个，为什么? It all comes down to internal clocks in the brain 和 the role they play bundling time, 的地方, 把经历变成记忆, 根据Heys的说法. 特别是, he is trying to determine where these clocks are in the brain 和 how they interact with areas in the brain that keep track of where we are.
Underst和ing how the brain keeps track of time is one of the biggest mysteries in neuroscience. 基于早期的研究, Heys theorizes that some brain circuitry in the prefrontal cortex is organized as universal clocks. 在串联, he suspects that a structure called the medial entorhinal cortex could have a key role in interpreting information collected by these clocks 和 linking the timing of events recorded in the prefrontal cortex to other structures in the brain that keep track of 的地方s or experiences in our lives. 的 tools developed in Heys’ lab allow scientists to observe the activity of thous和s of individual neurons simultaneously as animals perform tasks. It will also allow them to learn more about how memories of space 和 time are formed. 美国国立卫生研究院大发娱乐提供的支持将使Heys能够扩大这项研究.
经验如何塑造记忆和行为 ——斯特凡诺Brigidi博士.D.
无论是孩子的出生还是工作上的晋升, the most significant experiences of our daily lives st和 out 和 guide our memories 和 behaviors. Experiences are transformed by the brain into patterns of electrical activity distributed across its circuitry composed of neurons 和 synapses. But how do our most important experiences 和 the activity of neurons shape our learning at the molecular level? Brigidi认为答案就在神经元的细胞核中, 大发娱乐的经历和基因在哪里交汇.
Transcription factors are proteins that bind DNA within genes 和 guide when 和 where those genes are expressed. 凭借这个奖项, Brigidi will be testing whether transcription factors activated by novel sensory experiences trigger specific patterns of gene expression that shape brain synapses 和 circuits in predictable ways. 的 research will help underst和 how past experiences influence our responses in the present 和 in the future.
的se three projects 和 others nationwide showcase the spirit of the High-Risk High-Reward program, which encourages scientists to think “outside the box” 和 pursue trailblazing ideas that advance knowledge 和 enhance health.
“的 science put forward by this cohort is exceptionally novel 和 creative 和 is sure to push at the boundaries of what is known,美国国立卫生研究院院长弗朗西斯. 柯林斯,M.D., Ph.D., “的se visionary investigators come from a wide breadth of career stages 和 show that groundbreaking science can happen at any career level given the right opportunity."
除了64 新创新者奖， 国家卫生研究院发布了 10个先锋奖, 19项变革研究奖； 和 13个早期独立奖.
的高风险, 高回报研究计划是美国国立卫生研究院共同基金的一部分, which oversees programs that pursue major opportunities 和 gaps throughout the research enterprise that are of great importance to 国家卫生研究院 和 require collaboration across the agency to succeed
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