Healthy Brains, Healthy Lives’ Post

Examine how neuromodulators shape neuron activity & behavior as Raffaella Tonini, PhD, takes you on a research journey in the upcoming #MeettheExperts webinar. Don’t miss a chance to get your questions answered in the live Q&A! Register now! ▶️ https://bit.ly/48CXeYr

🌟 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗶𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝗯! 🌟   We're thrilled to share that our Ph.D candidate, Louis Philipp Lukas, has been awarded the 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙧𝙙 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙯𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝘽𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙊𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙜𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝘼𝙎𝙄𝘼 2024 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚! 🎉   👨🏾💻 Louis presented groundbreaking work on "𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩 𝘙𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘕𝘦𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘛𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘙𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘐𝘯𝘫𝘶𝘳𝘺 (𝘚𝘊𝘐)". This research, a collaborative effort with Lucie Bourguignon, Armin Curt, the EMSCI study group, Sarah Brüningk, and led by Prof. Dr. Catherine Jutzeler, showcases innovative use of Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) to predict recovery outcomes for patients with #SCI.   Key Highlights of the Research 🥅 𝘖𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦: 𝘛𝘰 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘊𝘐 𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦-𝘰𝘧-𝘵𝘩𝘦-𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘪𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴. 📝 𝘔𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘥𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘎𝘕𝘕𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘯𝘦𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘴, 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘟𝘎𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘴. 🌟 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴: 𝘎𝘕𝘕𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘯𝘦𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘴, 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴.   💪🏾 📊 This work is a testament to our lab's commitment to pushing the boundaries of biomedical data science and improving patient outcomes through innovative research. We are incredibly proud of Louis and the entire team's dedication and hard work.   Congratulations, Louis, on this well-deserved recognition! 🏆   🔗 https://lnkd.in/ev3XdXAN (𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦)   #Research #MachineLearning #Healthcare #SCI #GraphNeuralNetworks #Innovation #BiomedicalDataScience #ProudMoment #ASIA2024 #AwardWinningResearch

https://lnkd.in/gVfeEkw2 The brain does not cease to amaze us. From Ramon Cajal to Viren Jain today we keep exploring this final frontier of science inside our heads.

Heads up, brain scientists! ICERM has a number of great courses coming up this summer and fall. Check out the full list of offerings @ bit.ly/ICERMsummerfall24 #ComputationalBrainScience #BrownBrainScience!

We are excited about the #ProbiotaAmericas conference this week. Our Discovery Team Lead, M. Adnan Qureshi, Ph.D. will be presenting on "A Preclinical Cognitive Health Platform for Discovering Biotics Targeting the Gut-Brain Axis" at this meeting!    In humans, cognitive health is assessed by a variety of endpoints including memory, learning, reasoning, focus, concentration and alertness. The C. elegans model has been used for cognitive phenotypes like memory and learning, however these readouts are low throughput and not conducive for bioactive screening. At the meeting, Dr. Qureshi will present an innovative approach to measure alertness-like phenotype for high throughput bioactive screening, paving the way for developing new biotics that modulate gut-brain axis and boost cognition!    Stay tuned for more updates! #CognitiveHealth #GutBrainAxis #Biotics #HighThroughput #Innovation #NemaLife 

Let me share just one of many examples of how this can happen. But before I do, I’d like to offer you some Brain Science. This will help improve your understanding of how firefighters are being trained for failure. https://lnkd.in/eiUZNre

1. Brain-computer interfaces have the potential to improve lives but pose significant ethical dilemmas. 2. Nervous system disorders lead to high rates of death and disability, prompting investment in brain research for new treatment technologies. 3. Ethical questions arise about protecting the interests of patients receiving brain implants in clinical trials and ensuring mental privacy as technology advances. 4. Hypothetical scenarios illustrate challenges faced by individuals with experimental brain implants when companies go bankrupt or cease support. 5. Current brain imaging technologies raise concerns about mental privacy, especially if they could eventually decode thoughts from past research data. 6. Organoids, derived from stem cells, resemble fetal brain development but do not have the same capabilities, with debated potential for consciousness in the future. 7. If organoids were to develop consciousness or sentience, new guidelines and oversight would be necessary to ensure ethical treatment. 8. There is an ongoing need for ethical consideration in brain research, with researchers and companies encouraged to integrate ethical practices into their work.

“The team used machine learning to identify synapses—the junctions through which signals pass from one cell to another. They found almost 150 million synapses. Almost all neurons formed only one synapse with a given target cell. But a small fraction formed two or more synapses to the same target. In at least one case, more than 50 synapses connected a single pair of cells. Although rare, connections of seven or more synapses between cells were much more common than expected by chance. This suggests that these strong connections have some functional significance.” Perhaps brain maps and the structural and functional details exposed here could serve as a one of the biological bases for simulating and further validating Dr Stephen Wolfram’s work on cellular automata.

This work is one of my favorites! Can postbiotics have nootropic properties similar to the world’s widely used stimulant, caffeine? Do they help with wakefulness or alertness by modulating the gut-brain axis? How do the biotics compare with known cognition boosters: caffeine, botanicals, vitamins? Check out M. Adnan Qureshi's presentation at #ProbiotaAmericas. Here is what it took us in our search for nootropics. ** It required biologists, microfluidic engineers and AI developers at NemaLife to come together to pull this feat of measuring an alertness-like phenotype in worms at scale, and across worm-life. ** C. elegans responds to touch. Mechanosensory neurons and the underlying neural circuitry are activated upon touch which leads to a striking fight or flight response. This reflexive response declines with age similar to loss of tactile function in older people. ** Traditionally the touch assay required gentle stroking of the worm with an eyelash or eyebrow hair to record the reflexive response. Worm-by-worm, graduate students and postdocs would do this to painstakingly (and yes pulling their own eyelashes) to dissect the genetics and neural circuitry underlying the biological meaning of touch. ** How can we speed the touch assay? At NemaLife, we use microfluidic chips to culture worms with daily fluid injection of media/food to feed and washout-progeny. It is well known in biomechanics that fluid stresses induce cellular mechanotransduction. Can the fluid stress mimic touch-like behavior and elicit an organismal response? The answer was yes. This solved the eyelash problem! ** Best-in-class AI: The next major challenge was getting the reflexive response data from the videos. When the fluid flow is introduced into the chip, tracking the response of dozens of worms in the chip requires eliminating noise from debris, progeny, bubbles etc..We worked through several refinements of our AI model, to finally get the multi-worm detection and tracking right. Each stimulus and worm tracking generated 70,000 data points of reflexive response. How to scale this compute for several hundreds of chips per day - that is a story for another day! ** How do we know the touch-based reflexive response captures aspects of alertness. We tested mutants defective in touch-sensation as well as bioactives that are neurostimulants. This effort required analyzing more than a million images to extract phenotypic data on this reflexive response, and a data team to collate, synthesize and interpret the essence to define postbiotics that could be cognition boosters.

The various Volume EM methods are producing not only 3D images and maps that show the structural relationships between cells and organelles, but are also allowing measurements of the volume of organelles, such as mitochondria, to be obtained. This information will be very useful in studies of metabolic diseases, viral infections, etc. There are some great videos on the Volume EM Series on the Euro-BioImaging Communication YouTube channel https://lnkd.in/da-VUdjR @euro-bioimaging