# Re-engineering Connectivity in the Drosophila Brain

> **NIH NIH R21** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $476,500

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Understanding how our brain's 100 billion neurons process information to produce complex
feelings, decisions, and behaviors is a daunting task. A single neuron in the human brain may
communicate with more than a hundred thousand partners. For each partner, this exchange
happens at multiple specialized contact sites called synapses. Genetic studies are now
revealing that mutations that alter the formation or activity of synapses are often at the root of
neurological conditions ranging from autism spectrum disorder to epilepsy. Here, we will
develop a new, revolutionary technology that will allow us for the first time to re-engineer
connectivity in the living brain, preventing the formation of specific synaptic contacts between
neurons to test specific hypotheses on circuit dynamics and behavior. Our strategies are
completely non-invasive (as they depend on genetic reagents), can be applied on large scale,
and can be used to manipulate/modulate neural activity directly in behaving animals. We will
initially develop our reagents for use in Drosophila, but we anticipate that our strategies will be
immediately applicable to any animal model system (zebrafish, rodents, etc.). This work will
expand our mechanistic understanding of how brain circuits function in the normal state, as well
as allow the design of new experiments that accurately reproduce synaptic dysfunctions known
to underlie human disease.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10047820
- **Project number:** 1R21EY031849-01
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Marco Gallio
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $476,500
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-01 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10047820

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10047820, Re-engineering Connectivity in the Drosophila Brain (1R21EY031849-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10047820. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*