# Modular, in-situ probes of brain chemistry

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA · 2023 · $463,855

## Abstract

Summary. While the established electrochemical and microdialysis-based techniques for measuring drugs and
neurotransmitters in the brain have unimpeachably contributed to our understanding of brain function, they are
not without limitations. For example, when the same dose of cocaine is infused over 5 s versus 90 s the
behavioral, metabolic, and even genetic outcomes vary dramatically, suggesting that the 2 min resolution of
the most highly resolved of prior in-brain cocaine measurements are poorly matched to timescale of the drug's
psychobiology. More generally, no drugs and only a small number of neurotransmitters have been measured to
date in the brain with the most behaviorally relevant seconds time resolution. In response, our vision is to adapt
electrochemical aptamer-based (E-AB) sensors, an in-vivo measurement platform that does not rely on the
chemical or enzymatic reactivity of its targets (thus ensuring generality), to the problem of simultaneously
monitoring drugs of abuse and the neurotransmitters they modulate in situ in the brains of freely moving,
normally behaving rodents. To this end, we have already demonstrated feasibility by performing the high
frequency, multi-hour measurement of more than a half dozen molecules in the blood and brains of live rats.
Leveraging these preliminary results we propose here the adaptation of E-AB sensors to the problem of
studying of brain chemistry. If successful, the proposed work will greatly expand the number of
neurochemically relevant molecules that can be measured in real time and with second resolution in the living
brain, thus creating a new window into brain chemistry that provides unique capabilities for closed-loop study
and intervention.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10612396
- **Project number:** 5R01DA051100-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA
- **Principal Investigator:** Tod Edward Kippin
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $463,855
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-08-01 → 2025-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10612396

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10612396, Modular, in-situ probes of brain chemistry (5R01DA051100-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10612396. Licensed CC0.

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