Awarded in 2024
Home Department: Materials Science & Engineering
Faculty Advisors: Guosong Hong (Materials Science & Engineering) and Jun Ding (Neurosurgery, Neurology)

Research Title: Non-invasive and spatiotemporally precise chemogenetic and pharmacological neuromodulation with an ultrasound interface

Neuromodulation technologies have served as instrumental tools in discovery of fundamental functions in the brain and advancements of therapies for neurological diseases. Chemogenetic and pharmacological neuromodulation provide a precise method for targeting specific neurons in behaving animals yet are limited by their temporal and spatial resolution. Marigold proposes a technique to enhance the temporal and spatial resolution of chemogenetic and pharmacological modulation, enabled by focused ultrasound (FUS). FUS is powerful tool in neuromodulation because it can penetrate precisely but deeply into tissue in a noninvasive manner. She envisions that combining FUS with nanotransducers loaded with chemogenetic and pharmacological drugs will create a precise, noninvasive, and dynamic tool that will enable the advancement of fundamental neuroscience discoveries.