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Category: neuroscience

Is bioluminescence the key to safe, effective brain imaging?

A decade ago, a group of scientists had the literally brilliant idea to use bioluminescent light to visualize brain activity.

“We started thinking: ‘What if we could light up the brain from the inside?’” said Christopher Moore, a professor of brain science at Brown University. “Shining light on the brain is used to measure activity — usually through a process called fluorescence — or to drive activity in cells to test what role they play. But shooting lasers at the brain has down sides when it comes to experiments, often requiring fancy hardware and a lower rate of success. We figured we could use bioluminescence instead.”

With a major grant from the National Science Foundation, the Bioluminescence Hub at Brown’s Carney Institute for Brain Science launched in 2017 based on collaborations between Moore (associate director of the Carney Institute), Diane Lipscombe (the institute’s director), Ute Hochgeschwender (at Central Michigan University) and Nathan Shaner (at the University of California San Diego).

The scientists’ goal was to develop and disseminate neuroscience tools based on giving nervous system cells the ability to make and respond to light.

In a study published in Nature Methods, the team described a bioluminescence tool it recently developed. Called the Ca2+ BioLuminescence Activity Monitor — or “CaBLAM,” for short — the tool captures single-cell and subcellular activity at high speeds and works well in mice and zebrafish, allowing multi-hour recordings and removing the need for external light.

More said that Shaner, an associate professor in neuroscience and in pharmacology at U.C. San Diego, led the development of the molecular device that became CaBLAM: “CaBLAM is a really amazing molecule that Nathan created,” Moore said. “It lives up to its name.”

Measuring ongoing activity of living brain cells is essential to understanding the functions of biological organisms, Moore said. The most common current approach uses imaging with fluorescence-based genetically encoded calcium-ion indicators.

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Zap-and-freeze’ technique used to watch human brain cell communication

For the new study, the researchers used samples from the brains of normal mice as well as living cortical brain tissue sampled with permission from six individuals undergoing surgical treatment for epilepsy. The surgical procedures were medically necessary to remove lesions from the brain’s hippocampus.

The researchers first validated the zap-and-freeze approach by observing calcium signaling, a process that triggers neurons to release neurotransmitters in living mouse brain tissues.

Next, the scientists stimulated neurons in mouse brain tissue with the zap-and-freeze approach and observed where synaptic vesicles fuse with brain cell membranes and then release chemicals called neurotransmitters that reach other brain cells. The scientists then observed how mouse brain cells recycle synaptic vesicles after they are used for neuronal communication, a process known as endocytosis that allows material to be taken up by neurons.

The researchers then applied the zap-and-freeze technique to brain tissue samples from people with epilepsy, and observed the same synaptic vesicle recycling pathway operating in human neurons.

In both mouse and human brain samples, the protein Dynamin1xA, which is essential for ultrafast synaptic membrane recycling, was present where endocytosis is thought to occur on the membrane of the synapse.

“Our findings indicate that the molecular mechanism of ultrafast endocytosis is conserved between mice and human brain tissues,” the author says, suggesting that the investigations in these models are valuable for understanding human biology.

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Platelet-inspired nanoparticles can boost brain-computer interface electrode performance

Scientists working to enhance brain-computer interface (BCI) technology—which allows people to control devices with their thoughts—have found they can improve the performance of electrodes implanted in the brain by targeted delivery of anti-inflammatory drugs.

V-STARS pioneers neuroscience at ESA’s Orbital Robotics Lab

As part of the ESA Academy Experiments Programme, Team V-STARS carried out the first experiment with human participants in the Orbital Robotics Lab, investigating how microgravity affects the perception of verticality.

The V-STARS team, a collaboration between Birkbeck, University of London, and the University of Kent (UK), was selected to join the ESA Academy Experiments Programme in February 2025. After obtaining ethical approval from the United Kingdom and authorisation from the ESA Medical Board, the team was permitted to carry out their experiment in the Orbital Robotics Lab (ORL), located at ESTEC, the ESA site in the Netherlands.

The campaign involved test subjects seated on the ORL’s floating platform, wearing VR headsets while performing gravity-related perceptual tasks. The project investigates the use of Vestibular Stochastic Resonance — a phenomenon in which controlled noise enhances the sensitivity of a sensory system — to improve perception and potentially accelerate adaptation to microgravity. Over two weeks, the team tested more than 20 participants and has now returned to their universities to analyse the results.

Video NeuroImage: Stereotypic Motor Behaviors in a Patient With Pantothenate Kinase–Associated Neurodegeneration

A 24-year-old woman with pantothenate kinase–associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) presented with a 5-year history of psychiatric symptoms followed by prominent stereotypic motor behaviors, including repetitive touching of her mouth and leg, object manipulation, and tip-toe walking (Video 1). Examination revealed severe depression and anxiety, mild speech dysfluency, and the stereotypic movements. Previous symptomatic treatments provided limited benefit. Brain magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated the pathognomonic “eye-of-the-tiger” sign, indicative of iron deposition in the bilateral globus pallidus (Figure). Genetic testing identified compound heterozygous variants in the PANK2 gene: a known pathogenic variant (c.401AG) and a novel likely pathogenic variant (c.1465CG).

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