# UCLA IDDRC: Structural and Functional Visualization Core

> **NIH NIH P50** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2020 · $184,502

## Abstract

CORE E: STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL VISUALIZATION
Samantha Butler, Core Director; Peyman Golshani, Core Co-Director;
 Neil Harris and Susan Bookheimer; MRI sub-core directors
Abstract
The Structural and Functional Visualization Core provides comprehensive imaging services to the
members of UCLA Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC), working
on any aspect of the genetic and environmentally-induced developmental diseases affecting
nervous system development and function. The research ongoing in the UCLA IDDRC spans
basic scientists using reductionist approaches to elucidate the mechanisms specific to intellectual
developmental disabilities (IDDs) to clinicians assessing therapeutic interventions for patients. To
accommodate all of their imaging requirements, we provide access to three light microscopy
cores, including a microscopy suite dedicated to IDDRC researchers, human and animal MRI
facilities and the technical support needed to initiate and complete any imaging analysis.
 The Structural and Functional Visualization Core also works to develop new technologies
for visualizing biological samples and in turn provide them to IDDRC researchers. In this proposal,
we are focused on [1] developing smaller lighter one-photon miniaturized fluorescent microscopes
for live imaging neural activity in freely moving animals and [2] refining the methods for CLARITY
and iDISCO, protocols that render tissue transparent thereby permitting unparalleled visual acuity
into the complex circuitry of the brain. These techniques offer the promise of a holistic approach
to imaging, permitting IDDRC researchers to translate mechanism into therapy. For example,
researchers investigating a specific intellectual disorder will be able perform MRI on patients to
identify the affected region of the brain, implant miniaturized microscopes in rodent models to
perform Ca2+ imaging in vivo to examine how the firing patterns of specific populations of neuron
are mechanistically altered by the disease, while concomitantly examining putative aberrant circuit
formation using light microscopy coupled with CLARITY.
 Finally, this core also supports the efforts of all the other cores, offering IDDRC
researchers the ability to both probe molecular and cellular function at any level from the sub-
cellular to living animals and determine the consequence of therapeutic interventions.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10085985
- **Project number:** 1P50HD103557-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** SAMANTHA J BUTLER
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $184,502
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-08-01 → 2025-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10085985

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10085985, UCLA IDDRC: Structural and Functional Visualization Core (1P50HD103557-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10085985. Licensed CC0.

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