NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research

Neurodevelopment Activities

In FY2008, Blueprint funding initiatives are focused on providing tools and resources to advance the field of neurodevelopment. These projects are the result of a team of 32 researchers from diverse areas of investigation who convened at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to discuss cross-cutting challenges in neurodevelopmental research that might benefit most from Blueprint funding. This team put forward specific recommendations for action; of these, the following initiatives were approved for funding and are in various stages of progress.

Gene Expression in Developing Non-Human Primate Brain
This program addresses the need for a detailed, localized map of gene expression in the developing nervous system. Although the long-term goal is to obtain detailed and searchable maps of gene expression in human brain, using currently available techniques is both premature and cost-prohibitive. A tractable alternative is to pursue pilot studies in specific brain regions in developing, non-human primates. This pilot project focuses on detailing gene expression in the rhesus macaque nervous system at multiple stages of neural development. The accumulated data will be integrated into a publicly available, digital brain atlas and accompanied by informatics tools to search and analyze the data.

Contacts:
Beth-Anne Sieber, Ph.D.
Chief, Developmental Neurobiology Program
Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
mailto:bsieber@mail.nih.gov
(301) 443-5288

Kathleen C. Anderson, Ph.D.
Chief, Neural Bases of Cognition Program
Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
kanders1@mail.nih.gov
(301) 443-1576

Tools and Techniques for Elucidating and Manipulating Neural Circuit Development
Neural circuit development is a process that occurs during prenatal development and continues into adolescence. It begins with axon and dendrite formation in the embryonic brain, and continues through axon guidance and pathfinding, myelination, synapse formation, and synapse pruning from the prenatal period to the teenage years. Understanding how neural circuits take shape in space and time is essential in order to understand how the normal brain functions and how abnormal development causes disorders of disease, behavior, and personality. Projects supported by this initiative are focused on developing, creating, and distributing new, higher resolution methods for studying the assembly of neural circuits.

This research will yield improved tools and technologies to help identify key genetic, molecular, and cellular transitions between developmental stages of circuit formation.

Contact:
Beth-Anne Sieber, Ph.D.
Chief, Developmental Neurobiology Program
Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
bsieber@mail.nih.gov
(301) 443-5288

Creating Antibodies for Research in Neurodevelopment
Improving the quantities, quality, and distribution of monoclonal antibodies useful for studying neural development is a clear priority for advancing discoveries in the neurosciences. To that end, the Blueprint Resource Antibody Initiative for Neurodevelopment (BRAINdev) has provided funds to create, validate, and distribute approximately 150 monoclonal antibodies over a three year period. These antibodies will be validated in multiple model systems and made readily available to the community via the Center for Evaluation of Neurodevelopmental Antibodies (CENA). Access to these wellcharacterized antibodies, generated to recognize key molecules in neural development, will advance research in neuroscience across model systems.

Contacts:
Robert Riddle, Ph.D.
Program Director, Neurogenetics Cluster
National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
riddler@ninds.nih.gov
(301) 496-5745

Randall R. Stewart, Ph.D.
Program Director, Channels, Synapses and Circuits,
and SBIR/STTR Program Coordinator
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
stewartr@ninds.nih.gov
(301) 496-1917

 

 

 

The grants that support Gene Expression in Developing Non-Human Primate Brain, Tools and Techniques for Elucidating and Manipulating Neural Circuit Development, and BRAINdevare funded by the Institutes and Centers that comprise the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research.