The University of Oklahoma,
as one of three key institutes, has been awarded $6M over the next four years
by the National Science Foundation to build research infrastructure in the areas of
brain science and neural engineering within the State of Oklahoma, as well as
with other collaborative institutes from Rhode Island and Kentucky. The project
is titled as “Innovative, Broadly
Accessible Tools for Brain Imaging, Decoding, and Modulation.” It involves three states: Oklahoma,
Rhode Island, and Kentucky, and seven institutes: University of Oklahoma,
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and Laureate Institute for Brain
Research, University of Rhode Island, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown
University/Rhode Island Hospital, University of Kentucky, Kentucky State
University. The participants will form an interdisciplinary consortium to 1)
develop innovative and broadly accessible brain imaging tools and modulation
technologies for acquiring fundamental knowledge about how the nervous system
functions in healthy and diseased conditions; and 2) develop a diverse
workforce in the STEM areas, with particular emphasis on junior faculty, to
create and implement these technologies and tools.
The investigators will
accelerate development of new portable multimodal brain imaging systems and brain
stimulation systems. The technology seeks to realize the potential for
combining these systems into hybrid devices that can take advantage of the
strengths of each single modality to obtain a more comprehensive picture of
brain activity and behavior, and to develop effective treatments for
neurological and cognitive impairment. The Rhode Island team focuses on
hardware development while both Oklahoma and Kentucky teams develop
computational algorithms and implement applications that could benefit from the
integrated systems developed through the project. The methods are relevant to
basic and clinical studies, with applications in cognitive neuroscience, clinical
neuroscience and cognitive psychology. The research will allow the invention
and commercialization of low-cost, portable brain imaging and stimulation
devices as well as algorithms that will increase accessibility of these
technologies to a greater segment of the healthy and patient population. The
project also includes multiple components to develop a diverse workforce in the
STEM areas, and presents a strategy to engage each important phase of the
education and career process, spanning from K-12, undergraduate, graduate,
postdoctoral, to junior faculty.
In Oklahoma, Dr. Lei Ding from
the Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering is the PI leading the research
and infrastructure development activity among University of Oklahoma at Norman
Campus (focusing on algorithm and technology development and application to
cognitive development), University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center at
Oklahoma City (focusing on application to cognitive impairment), and Laureate
Institute for Brain Research at Tulsa (focusing on brain stimulation). These
three institutes will form the firm collaborative infrastructure for the brain
research involving multiple disciplines (engineering, psychology, neurology,
psychiatry, and surgery), as well as to interact with other institutes from
Rhode Island and Kentucky. In the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Joseph Havlicek
(School of Electrical and Computer Engineering), Dr. David Liu (Psychology),
and Dr. Han Yuan (Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering) are
participating investigators of the project.
The goal of building
research infrastructure in the area of brain science is part of the national
effort on advancing technology innovations in understanding the human brain as
called in the White House BRAIN Initiative. It is also built upon the
establishment of the new Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering in OU College
of Engineering with one of its three major thrust research areas as neural
engineering. This NSF project will enable the further development of brain
research in Oklahoma, enhance the relationship of multiple research institutes
in the State, and strengthen national collaborations through consortium in
competing more federal funding in areas of relevant topics.
