$5 Million Program Project Grant Awarded UT Neurobiology & Anatomy

A prestigious $5 million, 5-year program project grant entitled "Neural Models of Plasticity: Molecules to Networks" has been awarded to The University of Texas-Houston Medical School's department of neurobiology and anatomy by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes. Says Dr. John H. Byrne, chairman of the department and principal investigator for the project, "Our team is extremely pleased to be awarded this competitive grant as it represents an endorsement by our peers for the work we are doing. It will allow us to further develop the field of computational modeling by developing approaches to analyze and simulate brain function which is an important step toward understanding the complex interactions and patterns of activity within the human brain."

The grant will fund a core computational facility with sophisticated computer capabilities along with four specific projects designed to address a variety of brain-focused investigations ranging from the molecular level to circuits linking the eye. Faculty project leaders leading each of the four projects, in addition to Dr. Byrne, include Drs. Doug Baxter, Paul Smolen, Terry Crow, and David Marshak.

The concept of computational modeling is not easy to grasp explains Dr. Byrne but might best be understood by thinking of an airplane flight simulator. The computer simulates flight based on data and complex relationships between man and airplane that are entered into the computer as mathematical data. The computer simulation is not actual flight but the computer's reconstruction of flight.

One might extend that analogy to the human brain and provide the computer the data and biological relationships learned about the brain in recent decades. The computer, with guidance from faculty expertise in the area of computational modeling, would utilize those relationships to connect the dots and model a bigger picture of the brain and its complex interrelationships. That bigger picture, adds Dr. Byrne, is a formidable task considering that the brain has billions of neurons and scientists have worked very hard to date just to get a handle on how small circuits of 1,000 neurons or less work.

Thus, notes Dr. Byrne, the computer can help confirm what has been learned to date while informing and guiding targeted research for the future. "Our team is unique in that they are experimentalists who are not just feeding data into the computer - they are the scientists who also directly develop the data and that makes a difference," he adds.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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