I'm going to be at SfN later this week! Who else is going? What events should I check out etc?

Scalable Neural Interfaces Neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders have overwhelming societal and economic impacts. We need a new suite of tools that enable us to interface, at scale, with the human brain.

A silence switch for cancer + fungal networks as bio-interfaces – meet the 8 new Creator seeds we're funding in Scalable Neural Interfaces.

Led by @jacquescarolan.bsky.social, this space asks how we can safely connect tech with the human nervous system.

Dive in ↓
link.aria.org.uk/snb-seeds-bl...

Finally: on a personal note this has been such a wild journey. I spent 10 years building quantum computers and then jacked it all in to try and become a neuroscientist (I don't have high-school biology lol). The reason I could do this is because of wonderful friends at the Neural Computation Lab!

All-optical voltage interrogation for probing synaptic plasticity in vivo - Nature Communications Reliable measuring the voltage dynamics of individual neurons in the intact brain is significantly challenging. Here authors developed an all-optical method combining two-photon voltage imaging and optogenetics to measure and induce synaptic plasticity in vivo, revealing LTP of inhibition in cerebellar circuits and providing a blueprint to link synaptic changes to learning.

Together, this is a blueprint for defining synaptic plasticity rules *during behaviour*, with direct voltage readout on standard 2-photon rigs. Check out the paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Finally, we used this to probe synaptic plasticity. Pairing climbing fibre input before granule cell activation induced potentiation of IPSPs, lasting at least 40 min. Smaller IPSPs potentiated more, and neighbours co-potentiated — revealing circuit-level learning rules.

Because we could image full dendritic arbors across multiple cells, we saw rich circuit dynamics: precise synchrony of CF-evoked events, spatially diverse inhibition across branches, and global vs local patterns of dendritic activity.

With this, we captured high-fidelity recordings of spontaneous and sensory-evoked complex spikes, optogenetically evoked IPSPs (via feedforward inhibition) + even the occasional EPSP!

We expressed JEDI-2Psub in Purkinje cell dendrites and opsins in cerebellar granule cells. This enables us to both image voltage at postsynaptic dendrites and precisely activate presynaptic inputs with light.

At the heart of this is a new voltage indicator — JEDI-2Psub — from colleagues at the St.Pierre Lab. Optimised for subthreshold signals, it gives ~3.5× larger responses near rest compared to JEDI-2P. This makes it ideal for capturing synaptic potentials.

SUPER excited that my first ever *real* neuroscience paper is published today in Nat Comms!🥳

We combined two-photon voltage imaging ⚡️and optogenetics 🔦to probe synaptic plasticity in the cerebellum of awake behaving mice. 🧵

That’s the vision we’re exploring.

If you’re working on transformative, unconventional ideas to 1000x the scale of neurotech or have answers to the following questions — I’d love to hear from you!

📖 Full post: link.aria.org.uk/jacquessubst...

Neurotech needs the same inflection point.

From invasive, last-resort procedures → simple, scalable, globally accessible platforms.

The 1950s had the transistor. Today the convergence of engineered biology + hardware could make a surgery-free, platform neurotechnology possible

I think cardiology in the 1950s is a great case study, where treating heart block required open-heart surgery.

The leap wasn’t “better surgery.”
It was the transvenous lead — a minimally invasive access route that unlocked millions of pacemaker implants/year. ❤️⚡

DBS for PD is a great proof point: effective, approved, reimbursed… yet only a fraction of people eligible receive it.

Complex surgery imposes a series of stacked, multiplicative barriers that fundamentally limit scalability.

So what do we do?

Emerging therapies show real promise:

⚡ Targeted electrical stimulation for intractable psychiatric disorders
🧬 Cell therapies for neurodegenerative disease

But they won’t scale to the millions who need them.
doi.org/10.1016/j.br...
doi.org/10.1016/j.pa...

We’re facing a global brain-health crisis:

🧠 Brain disorders = biggest disease burden worldwide
💔 3× that of heart disease
💰 Costs US + Europe $1.7 trillion annually

And the gap between need & treatment is only widening.
doi.org/10.1159/0005...

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we scale neurotech.

Current approaches (e.g. DBS for PD) aren’t meeting the need. Emerging ones may fare even worse.

That’s why I’m scoping a new @aria-research.bsky.social programme to develop neurotech built for scale.

Check out my post +share feedback!👇

Sculpting Innate Immunity The immune system sustains human health via the complementary action of its two branches: the innate and the adaptive immune systems. Precision modulation of innate immunity can unlock transformative ...

What if we could engineer the innate immune system for broad, long-lasting resilience?

Our latest thesis, Sustained Viral Resistance, proposes using AI, synthetic biology + materials chemistry to catalyse a new era of innate immunotherapies.

Dive in/give feedback: link.aria.org.uk/sii-progthes...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

wait... fungi display action potentials?!🤯

"Two types of spiking activity are uncovered: high-frequency (period 2.6 min) and low-frequency (period 14 min) .."

is this well known in biology? like, if I actually studied it at school would I know this? so cool!

Love this. Definitely the cerebellum. Specifically how different cell types map onto specific components of an adaptive filter www.nature.com/articles/nrn...

We've been selected by @aria-research.bsky.social to develop a network of neural devices designed to monitor and regulate mental and cognitive states without brain surgery. The UK-based program led by @jacquescarolan.bsky.social is contributing £69M to unlock the full potential of #neurotech.

Precision Neurotechnologies Backed by £69m, this programme aims to unlock new methods to interface with the human brain at the cellular level, with unprecedented precision.

🚨 hey hey everyone interested in non-invasive precision #neurotech for neuropsych disease: ARIA's Precision Neurotechnologies Program teams announced!

Kudos to PD @jacquescarolan.bsky.social for putting together an amazing group👏👏👏 Excitedly watching this space 👀🍿

www.aria.org.uk/opportunity-...

Thanks for amplifying Susanne! Inspired by your awesome work over at Wellcome Leap.

Precision Neurotechnologies Backed by £69m, this programme aims to unlock new methods to interface with the human brain at the cellular level, with unprecedented precision.

It’s so exciting to see all the newly funded ARIA Precision Neurotechnologies projects get announced!
A full list can be found here:
www.aria.org.uk/opportunity-...

A 'programme' should bring teams together to create some kind of nonlinear reaction which just isn't possible by funding them in isolation. I can't wait to see the synergies and interactions that come out of this incredible group 🧪(3/3)

Some of the things I'm most excited by are (a) the diversity of technologies we can support (biohybrids🧫, gene therapies🧬 microscopic CMOS robots🤖 acoustic🔊 and electrical interfaces⚡️) and (b) the variety of institutions (academia, startups, hospitals, non-profits) (2/3)

🚨I’m super excited to announce the teams we’re funding as part of our Precision Neurotechnologies programme.🚨
They’ll work on the next-gen tech that’ll allow us to understand + treat a wider range of brain disorders than ever before. Read more below (1/3) @aria-research.bsky.social

www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/cambridgeneu...

www.convergentresearch.org/frost-uk

www.aria.org.uk/opportunity-...

www.fiftyyears.com/5050

There are LOTS of exciting ARIA-Neurotech opportunities closing in the next month 🤯
🧠Cambridge NeuroWorks 17/01
🧠UK FROs 07/02
🧠 ARIA Seeds Call 13/02
🧠 FiftyYears UK Cohort 17/02
Wild time to be building Neurotech. Don't sleep!
Links 🔽