Mala Murthy (left) and Andrew Leifer (right) are using the whole-brain map of a fruit fly to track perturbations from one neuron across all 130,000 neurons. Photo by Kevin Birch
Two projects — one that maps the function of the brain’s neuronal network in unprecedented detail and another that combines robotics and light-based computer circuits to create safe self-driving vehicles — have been awarded funding through Princeton’s Eric and Wendy Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund.
The fund aims to spur forward momentum in science or engineering through the creation of entirely new technologies that can have a major positive impact on a field of research. The fund supports projects of such exploratory nature that they are often considered too risky to qualify for funding from conventional sources such as government grants.
“Both of these projects brings together leading faculty across domains of expertise to collaborate on endeavors that, if successful, can dramatically advance what we know and what we can do,” said Princeton University Dean for Research Peter Schiffer, professor of physics. “The Schmidt Fund’s goal is truly embodied in these examples of how novel thinking and creative activity can aim toward transformational global impacts.”
The fund was created in 2009 through a gift from Eric and Wendy Schmidt. Eric Schmidt is co-founder of Schmidt Sciences, The Schmidt Family Foundation, and Schmidt Ocean Institute, the former Chief Executive Officer of Google, and former executive chairman of Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company. Wendy Schmidt is co-founder of Schmidt Sciences, and president and co-founder of The Schmidt Family Foundation and Schmidt Ocean Institute. Eric Schmidt earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Princeton in 1976 and served as a Princeton Trustee from 2004 to 2008.
One of the two newly funded technologies is led by associated faculty at the Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute:
Technology to track brain-wide signals through new imaging system
- Mala Murthy, the Karol and Marnie Marcin ’96 Professor, professor of neuroscience, and director of the Princeton Neuroscience Institute
- Andrew Leifer, assistant professor of physics and neuroscience
This project will provide the most detailed insights yet into how signals propagate through networks of neurons to give rise to brain function. Drawing on extensive previous studies of neural connections in worms by Leifer’s team and fruit flies by Murthy’s team, the two scientists and their teams will develop a system to create maps of functional connectivity that will shed light on how the brain controls activities such as decision making and movement.
AI image analysis and human proofreading, led by Princeton neuroscientists, generated an unprecedented neural wiring diagram of a female fruit fly brain. This subset shows roughly 3,000 neurons out of the more than 130,000 neurons in the complete map. Image courtesy of Murthy and Seung labs
With this new system, researchers can find out how perturbing one neuron affects the signals traveling through neural pathways across the entire 130,000-neuron fruit fly brain. Current technologies would require more than a year to conduct such a large study, so the team will develop a system that simultaneously stimulates groups of neurons and images them via a new method called light beads microscopy, combined with machine learning to decipher the network’s responses. The technology will allow new discoveries in neuroscience, providing insights into how neural circuitry gives rise to behaviors.
The second funded technology involves revolutionizing robot safety through photonic computing, led by Paul Prucnal, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Jaime Fernández Fisac, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.