Alexandra Pacureanu awarded a research grant by UKRI and Wellcome

16-02-2022

ESRF scientist Alexandra Pacureanu and Andreas Schaefer from the Francis Crick Institute, awarded £2 million by UKRI and Wellcome for research on ‘Integration of functional and structural knowledge across scales to decipher information processing in the mammalian brain’. This project is one of the nine selected for funding through the Physics of Life Strategic Priorities Fund, with the aim to harness physics developments to tackle grand challenges in the life sciences.

The mammalian brain is one of the most complex structures known to mankind. Understanding how it processes information is a prerequisite for tackling psychiatric and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer, Parkinson or autism, as well as for building advanced artificial intelligence. However, investigations are hampered by the challenging nature of measuring what is going on inside the brain.

Pacureanu and Schaefer will use EBS performances and 3D X-ray nano-imaging developed at ID16A beamline together with in vivo functional imaging and electron microscopy, to determine how the brain circuitry works.

partners

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility - 71, avenue des Martyrs, CS 40220, 38043 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.