Thursday, April 3, 2025
4/3/2025
Optimizing in vivo dLight recordings for investigating the influence of disease on dopamine signaling. - Project Summary This proposed research aims to provide a roadmap for studying dopamine dynamics using a novel optical tool, dLight, deepening our understanding of dopamine biology. Altered dopamine signaling is central to many neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, yet we lack effective treatments for these disorders. Many existing treatments act on dopaminergic systems, but they act on slow time scales and do not work for all patients. Deepening our fundamental understanding of dopamine biology can lead to the discovery of improved treatments. The Tian lab developed dLight, which is an optical biosensor that can directly record dopamine signaling in vivo with high precision. The proposed work aims to determine the performance metrics of the newest dLight variants in vivo and use the sensor to measure alterations in dopamine activity in a disease model. Specifically, I will measure differences in dopamine signaling between offspring of the maternal immune activation model and healthy controls, as offspring from this model have been shown to have altered dopamine signaling systems. Additionally, I will create a database of the data collected to share with the neuroscience research community, increasing the accessibility of dLight and enabling researchers to use this novel tool in their own research. Successful completion of this project has the potential to transform our understanding of dopamine biology and significantly contribute to the development of effective treatments for many neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.
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