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Allen Institute

Feb 9 • 13 tweets • 16 min read

Announcing 23 Allen Distinguished Investigator awards —representing $15.5M in total funding— aiming to advance #FrontierScience in: neural circuits of under-studied organisms, advances in mammalian synthetic biology & micropeptides involved in immunity 🧵1
alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/fro…

@SFStateBIO

Allen Distinguished Investigator Robyn Crook @SFStateBIO is leading a project to study the neural control of movement in cephalopods, animals that have the most complicated nervous systems of the invertebrate world. #FrontierScience 🐙
alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/fro… 🧵 2

@neuroluci

How does a new kind of behavior arises in evolution? Allen Distinguished Investigators @neuroluci, & @SGRodriques at @TheCrick are studying larvae brains of a species of fruit fly that have evolved to jump 10 times their body length. #FrontierScience alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/fro… 🧵 3

@StrotherLab

Where did modern nervous systems come from? Allen Distinguished Investigators Joseph Ryan, Mark Martindale, and @StrotherLab, are leading a project at @Whitney_Lab to better understand the nervous systems of ctenophores. #FrontierScience alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/fro… 🧵4

@LivnatJerby

The human microbiome is inextricably interwoven with our health. Allen Distinguished Investigators Ami Bhatt, Michael Bassik & @LivnatJerby are leading #FrontierScience at @StanfordDeptMed to look at the role of the gut microbiome’s micropeptides. alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/fro… 🧵5

@SlavoffL

Allen Distinguished Investigators @SlavoffL, Grace Chen, and Joseph Craft are leading a project at @YaleChem to explore the roots of the devastating autoimmune disease #lupus. #FrontierScience | alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/fro… 🧵6

@lizzyzhao

Allen Distinguished Investigators @lizzyzhao & @scimaven, will lead a project at @RockefellerUniv and CUNY @Hunter_College to better understand how immune genes that code for tiny proteins known as #micropeptides arise in evolution. #FrontierScience alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/fro… 🧵7

@Pulin_Li

To yield more information about human health & disease, Allen Distinguished Investigator @Pulin_Li at @WhiteheadInst is leading a project to improve the development of organoids, lab-grown mini-organs grown from human stem cells. 🧫 #FrontierScience: alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/fro… 🧵8

@AdrianRanga1

Currently, brain organoids are missing several key attributes of the real thing. Allen Distinguished Investigator @AdrianRanga1 is leading #FrontierScience at @KU_Leuven to apply the emerging field of “soft robotics” to brain organoids. 🧠 🤖 alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/fro… 🧵9

@kellystevenslab

Better understanding how human livers develop could allow researchers to grow new organs in the lab. Learn about Allen Distinguished Investigator @kellystevenslab's #FrontierScience on: Mid-terminal human synthetic liver organogenesis at @UWMedicine
alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/fro…
🧵10

@ChrisChenMD

Allen Distinguished Investigators Wilson Wong, @ChrisChenMD, and @Kottond, are leading #FrontierScience at @BU_Tweets to test a classic but unproven theory about how our lungs develop their complicated branching structures. alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/fro… 🧵11

@nzmyachie

Allen Distinguished Investigators @nzmyachie, @nika_shakiba, and @penningerlab, are leading #FrontierScience at @UBC to trace the “family trees” of individual stem cells as they grow and divide into organoids, lab-grown mini-organs.alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/fro… 🧵12

In related news ⭐️ We are seeking Letters of Intent for #FrontierScience funding to support technology development in Protein Lifespan and Nutrient Sensing. Up to eight awards will be made for up to $10M total funding. Apply by March 1: alleninstitute.org/2022-adi-open-…

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More from @AllenInstitute

Allen Institute

@AllenInstitute

Feb 8

Brain mapping requires thorough synaptic measurements with diverse subclasses of neurons. Check out our latest #neuroscience publication: “Synaptic connectivity to L2/3 of primary visual cortex measured by two-photon #optogenetic stimulation”
📄 elifesciences.org/articles/71103 🧵 1

@trav_ha

Our team [including @trav_ha, @timjarsky, @HongkuiZeng & @lukecampagnola] + @bakermind combined optogenetic stimulation with simultaneous multicellular recording to measure synaptic connections within cortical microcircuits. #optogenetics🧵 2

The reliability of multiphoton optogenetic stimulation was measured across Cre lines & connectivity measurements were verified by #patchclamp recordings 🧵 3

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Allen Institute

@AllenInstitute

Jan 24

Different cell types in the brain have their own connectivity rules and patterns. In a recently published study, our #neuroscience researchers took a deep dive into the connectomics of an important but enigmatic cell type, the chandelier cell. 🧵1

📄 elifesciences.org/articles/73783

🔬 💻 Using large-scale #electronmicroscopy with automated segmentation, we mapped the complete axo-axonic input onto pyramidal neurons (1,929 synapses in total, 1,127 from chandelier cells) in a volume of layer 2/3 of mouse visual cortex. #ImagingTheFuture #BrainMapping🧵2

By completely reconstructing the presynaptic chandelier cells, we found a novel principle of connectivity, where a group of interneurons are essentially interchangeable, but their postsynaptic targets individually regulate the amount of input they receive from the population. 🧵3

Read 7 tweets

Allen Institute

@AllenInstitute

Oct 31, 2019

@nature

In a new study out in @nature, our researchers make a big step forward in our quest to map the brain. Study findings lay the groundwork to better understand brain disorders & diseases such as #Alzheimers and #schizophrenia.

alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/bra…

This new study describes a high-resolution expansion of our #openscience Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas-- the most detailed map of connections in a mammalian brain to date. Access via: connectivity.brain-map.org

Using a computational approach, our researchers found that different sections of the cortex and thalamus can be mapped into a hierarchy, much like a company’s org chart – although not all connections followed this hierarchical structure. #brainmapping