Center for Neural Circuit Mapping members awarded 3 federal grants totaling $7.1 million

Chancellor’s Fellow Xiangmin Xu, Ph.D., professor of anatomy & neurobiology and director of the Center for Neural Circuit Mapping, and other CNCM investigators have been awarded grants totaling $7.1 million from three federal agencies to support efforts to develop powerful new molecular tools and enhance resources the center offers to neuroscientists worldwide. The National Institute on Aging is funding a four-year, $4.8 million comparative single-cell epigenomic analysis of Alzheimer’s disease-like pathogenesis in unconventional animal models. A three-year, $1.8 million grant from the Food and Drug Administration will support the development of innovative treatments for rare genetic brain diseases, and $500,000 awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health will be used to upgrade the light-sheet fluorescence microscope for imaging large brain samples. “Xiangmin and his colleagues are successfully pursuing big team science at the very highest level to address important questions that couldn’t be tackled by any single lab,” said Geoffrey Abbott, Ph.D., the School of Medicine’s vice dean for basic science research.