# Technology Core

> **NIH NIH P50** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $548,657

## Abstract

Technology Core – Summary
In the Technology Core, we develop, validate, and implement (in the real-world drug abuse-relevant setting of
the Center Projects and collaborations), next-generation technologies for studying neural circuit structure-
function relationships. We pay particular attention to integrative methods for crossing spatial scales for
observation and manipulation, from single neuron-resolution during behavior, to brainwide analysis during
behavior. The central goal is synergistic with the Training core but necessarily inverted in structure; the
technologies developed and applied here, though demonstrated in the lab and standing on firm ground, are in
earlier and unpublished stages, are equipment-intensive, and cannot at present be disseminated in the short-
course Training Core model. Instead, the Technology Core staff will guide the direct local implementation of
these new technologies for Center Aims across all four research projects. Technology Core staff will be engaged
to visit and guide local implementation of these technologies, which include CLARITY-optimized light sheet
microscopy (COLM), Frame-projected Independent-fiber Photometry (FIP), optoencephalography (OEG), and
fast resonant-scanning two-photon (2P) circuit interrogation (2PRS) in behavior. In Aim 1 we implement
COLM. A number of CLARITY papers have emerged but imaging speed remained a bottleneck; however, we
recently met this challenge with an enabling light-sheet method, COLM, which may open a new landscape for
understanding the structural underpinnings of maladaptive drug-modulated behavior. In Aim 2 we develop
across Center Projects, FIP for truly simultaneous high-speed multi-site observation of genetically-specified
neural activity traffic across the adult mammalian brain, suitable for quantifying abused-drug experience-
triggered joint activity relationships among multiple brainwide projections and cell populations. Among other
applications in the Center, FIP will be used for simultaneous recording of multiple independent axonal activity
signals representing diverse projections of ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons, tracking previously
inaccessible activity relationships among these circuit elements at high speed during distinct salient sensory
experiences. Finally in Aim 3 we develop for Center Projects both 1) large-field of view (5mm diameter)
volumetric microscopy for recording with near-cellular resolution the activity of a half million cells in
superficial cortex of awake behaving rodents (OEG); and 2) true cellular-resolution imaging of hundreds of
individual neurons within brain volumes during behavior (resonant-scanning 2PRS). These tools enable
investigation of interactions between subpopulations within and across brain regions, unbiased identification
of behaviorally relevant circuit dynamics and processing hierarchies, and (in combination with optogenetic
stimulation) systematic causal analysis in abused-drug altered states.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10149271
- **Project number:** 5P50DA042012-05
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Sean Albert Quirin
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $548,657
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-15 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10149271

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10149271, Technology Core (5P50DA042012-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10149271. Licensed CC0.

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