Clarkson University Professors Silvana Andreescu and Stephanie Schuckers have received a nearly $300,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) Award for their collaborative research project to develop devices to monitor and study neurotransmitters in the brain.
Andreescu is the Egon Matijević Endowed Chair in Chemistry and Professor of Bioanalytical Chemistry at Clarkson. Schuckers is the Paynter-Kringman Endowed Professor in Engineering Science at Clarkson. She also directs Clarkson’s Center for Identification Technology Research (CITeR).
Neurotransmitters (NTs) are responsible for biological and physiological functions controlling mood, memory, behavior and coordination in the brain. Understanding NT dynamics is essential to understanding brain function but the means by which specific neurotransmitters achieve their behavioral effects is still largely unknown and requires accurate, real-time quantification in brain structures.
To meet this challenge, a collaborative team of biosensing experts, computer engineers and neurophysiologists at Clarkson University and the White River Junction VA Medical center are developing novel electrochemical enzyme biosensors that can measure multiple NTs with increased accuracy with little or no false detection. The biosensors will be integrated with statistical and machine learning methods and will be used to study the neurochemical environment in a rat model of Parkinson’s Disease. Clarkson University students will work with the team of investigators to develop next generation biosensing technologies for monitoring neurotransmission in the brain.
The project will develop biosensing devices that incorporate NT-specific materials and electrode surfaces to monitor neuronal activity. The research team will engineer a device that can be easily scaled and reproduced and will improve our ability to study the complex neural mechanisms involved in signaling in the brain.
Andreescu and Schuckers will work with a team of students in the Chemistry, Biomolecular Science and the new interdisciplinary Biomedical Engineering and Biomedical Science and Technology degree programs at Clarkson and conduct hands-on research, demonstrations, and experiments including demonstrations of neuromonitoring and neurostimulation experiments in live animals at Dartmouth College.
“I am extremely excited to work on this project and apply our knowledge and expertise to develop technology that can help understand brain function and the role of neurotransmitters in disease progression and therapy. This project will also provide important opportunities for our students to engage in cross-disciplinary research; they will gain the knowledge and skills that will prepare them for careers in biotechnology, bioengineering and biomedicine,” Andreescu said.
The broader impacts of this work include potential societal benefit from the discovery of new NT-specific materials and the development of novel biosensing tolls that could be used broadly by the biomedical community for studying neurochemical changes in the brain, as well as the education and training of students who will be uniquely trained to tackle grand challenges in neuroscience and device engineering.
More details about the project can be found via the NSF Award Abstracts database at http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=2042544 .
https://www.clarkson.edu/news/clarkson-professors-receive-nsf-award-study-neurotransmitters-brain