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Technology Development Initiative – Paper of the Month – January 2023

Rapid Quantum Magnetic IL-6 Point-of-Care Assay in Patients Hospitalized with COVID-19. Diagnostics.

The quantum diamond microscope system is a sensitive method to detect target proteins in a short time compared to similar immunocomplex-based detection methods (e.g. traditional ELISAs). This method does not require removal of unbound beads or extensive wash steps thus providing relatively fast and sensitive assay for measuring protein targets in pre-clinical and clinical applications. [Read More]

A red nucleus-VTA glutamate pathway underlies exercise reward and the therapeutic effect of exercise on cocaine use

Featured Paper of the Month – January 2023
Published in Science Advances by Yi He and Zheng-Xiong Xi, et al. of the NIDA IRP Addiction Biology Unit.

It is well known that physical exercise is rewarding and protective against drug abuse and addiction. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these actions are not fully understood. In this report, we found that prolonged daily voluntary wheel-running produced a more robust increase in c-fos expression in the red nucleus (RN) than in other brain regions. Subsequent neuronal tracing imaging and electrophysiological assays demonstrated that most RN neurons are glutamatergic in its magnocellular portion (RNm) and wheel-running activates a subset of RNm glutamate neurons that project to the neighboring ventral tegmental area (VTA), particularly to contralateral VTA dopamine neurons…

Calcium activity is a degraded estimate of spikes

Hot Off the Press – December 22, 2022 Summary Neurons communicate via electrical signals – spikes – and recording these has provided fundamental information regarding how the brain works. When neurons send electrical signals, several other biological signals occur, notably calcium. Calcium signaling is often used to make inferences about spike activity. However, it was… [Read More]

Kauê Costa named an Allen Institute Next Generation Leader

The Allen Institute has announced six new Next Generation Leaders (NGL), members of a unique neuroscience advisory panel made up of early-career researchers who will help advise research efforts at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the MindScope Program, and the Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics. Among the new panel members is Kauê Machado Costa,… [Read More]

Technology Development Initiative – Paper of the Month – December 2022

Nanoparticle single-cell multiomic readouts reveal that cell heterogeneity influences lipid nanoparticle-mediated messenger RNA delivery. Nature Nanotechnology.

Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University’s School of Medicine have developed a system that makes nanoparticle delivery to subsets of cells more predictable by combining DNA barcoding with a nanoparticle delivery system called single-cell nanoparticle targeting-sequencing (SENT-seq). Using SENT-seq, the investigators identified how different nanoparticles deliver DNA barcodes and mRNA into cells to affect the transcriptome and proteome with single cell resolution. [Read More]

Muscarinic Acetylcholine M₂ Receptors Regulate Lateral Habenula Neuron Activity and Control Cocaine Seeking Behavior

Featured Paper of the Month – December 2022
Published in The Journal of Neuroscience by Clara Wolfe and Carl Lupica et al. of the NIDA IRP Electrophysiology Research Section.

The lateral habenula (LHb) is a brain region receiving information from brain areas involved in decision making, with influence on motivation, reward, and movement. This interface between thoughts, emotions, and actions is how the LHb permits adaptive behavior, and LHb dysfunction is implicated in psychiatric and drug use disorders. Silencing the LHb impairs control over cocaine seeking in rats and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChR) are also implicated…

Incubation of palatable food craving is associated with brain-wide neuronal activation in mice

Hot Off the Press – November 21, 2022 Summary Relapse to reward seeking progressively increases during abstinence, a behavioral phenomenon termed incubation of craving. Mechanistic studies of incubation can lead to novel relapse treatments. However, previous studies have primarily used rat models and targeted region-by-region analyses, and a brain-wide functional atlas of incubation of reward… [Read More]

Yavin Shaham Wins the 2022 Ruth L. Kirschstein Mentoring Award

Yavin Shaham, Ph.D., Chief of Behavioral Neuroscience Research Branch and Neurobiology of Relapse Section has been awarded the 2022 Ruth L. Kirschstein mentoring award by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of the 2022 NIH Director’s Awards. The NIH Director’s Awards recognizes exceptional performance and special efforts beyond regular job assignments. The Ruth… [Read More]

Technology Development Initiative – Paper of the Month – November 2022

Transgenic mice for in vivo epigenome editing with CRISPR-based systems. Nature Methods.

Gemberling et al. generated and validated two new Cre-dependent transgenic mouse lines harboring LSL-dCas9-p300 (gene activator/histone acetyltransferase) and LSL-dCas9-KRAB (gene repressor/histone methyltransferase). The authors demonstrated that guide RNAs targeting gene enhancers and the gene promoter are effective at modulating both histone modification state and gene transcription. [Read More]

Misconfigured striatal connectivity profiles in smokers

Featured Paper of the Month – November 2022
Published in Neuropsychopharmacology by Thomas Ross and Elliot Stein of the NIDA IRP Neuroimaging Research Branch.

The striatum, part of the forebrain, is critically involved in reward processes and substance use. Many of the inputs to the striatum come from frontal brain regions. One way to study these connections in living humans is using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A common fMRI approach, resting-state functional connectivity, typically examines the temporal similarity of the signals from two brain areas: essentially looking at the connection between ‘point A’ and ‘point B’…