University of Tasmania, Australia

Understanding the organization, structure and cellular mechanisms that underpin the complexity of the human brain remains one of the biggest challenges of science. In particular, the jump from understanding the workings of an individual cell to how groups of these cells interact to make up a functioning system is a huge leap that we are still in the initial stages of undertaking. Obtaining this knowledge is crucial to determining what happens when a nervous system fails to work properly, resulting in some of the most significant diseases known to society today, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and motor neuron disease. In this proposal we will develop microfluidic technology to probe changes to brain function at the levels of the cell and the circuit in response to physical and chemical stimuli. This will provide an improved understanding of the mechanisms underlying neuronal degeneration that may form the basis of early diagnosis or enable the development of new therapeutics, ultimately improving treatment efficiency and efficacy for people with these diseases.