A multidisciplinary team of researchers, including UC Santa Barbara scientists John Bowers, Michael Goard and Luke Theogarajan, has been awarded $9 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop and widely share state-of-the-art optical brain-imaging techniques.

The group of neuroscientists, electrical engineers, molecular biologists, neurologists, bioengineers and physicists was recognized for its collaborative NEMONIC (NExt generation MultiphOton NeuroImaging Consortium) project, which pushes the boundaries of brain imaging.

“The limit to understanding the brain is no longer the ability to store, process and analyze data,” said Bridget Queenan, associate director of the UCSB Brain Initiative. “The fundamental barrier is the ability to see the brain in action. As neuroscientists, we would love to watch brain cells going about their daily business. We want to record all the cells all the time, but that’s just not possible with the existing technologies. Fundamentally, we need to invent new ways of seeing what brains are up to.”