The family foundation of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has awarded $880,000 to Stanford researchers to develop tiny microscopes that can capture real-time images of neurons firing in the brains of research mice. The data will be used to unravel the neural and cellular basis of schizophrenia.
MARK SCHNITZER, an associate professor of biology and of applied physics, leads the team. Also on board are ABBAS EL GAMAL, the Hitachi America Professor in the School of Engineering, and postdoctoral fellow KUNAL GHOSH.
The optical recordings created by the miniaturized fluorescence microscopes will provide crucial knowledge of the normal patterns of neural circuit dynamics and how these patterns may go awry in disease states.
The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation is funding programs with potential for major breakthroughs that have struggled to find funding through traditional sources.
