# High-Performance Imaging Through Scattering Living Tissue

> **NIH NIH R01** · MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · 2020 · $839,614

## Abstract

The ability to dynamically image, using fluorescent probes, neural activity and other fast physiological events in
living brains has begun to revolutionize neuroscience. The fundamental limitation of optical scattering in living
tissue, which limits fast imaging to shallow depths, has attracted much attention from hardware inventors, who
have developed a diversity of strategies -- ranging from multiphoton laser-scanning microscopy, to adaptive
optics approaches that attempt to invert tissue scattering. However, imaging extended volumes of brain tissue,
at rates that keep up with fast events like action potentials, remains a challenge. We here propose to invert the
problem, and make the living brain, itself, more transparent. By developing chemicals that safely and
efficaciously smooth out refractive index inhomogeneities that scatter light, we will enable observation of high
speed neural processes throughout extended volumes, e.g. entire cortical microcircuits (and potentially, across
arbitrary scales). In this way, neuroscientists will be able to analyze the neural activity patterns across circuits
underlying complex phenomena like emotions, decisions, and actions, and that contribute to disease states.
Beyond neuroscience, our technology may broadly improve the observation of high-speed physiological events
in the living body, of importance to immunity, development, cancer, and other parts of biology and medicine.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9978808
- **Project number:** 5R01DA045549-04
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- **Principal Investigator:** Edward S. Boyden
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $839,614
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-01 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9978808

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9978808, High-Performance Imaging Through Scattering Living Tissue (5R01DA045549-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9978808. Licensed CC0.

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