LSF Japan - Mark Ellisman
First Japan event: July 27-30, 2009
Mark Ellisman, Ph.D.
Professor of Neurosciences; Director of the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR) at the Center for Research in Biological Systems, University of California, San Diego
“Multi-Scale Imaging of the Nervous System: Where’s the Dark Matter?”
- Monday, July 27th, 2009, 17:00 h
Venue: Sanjo-Kaikan Conference Hall, Hongo Campus of the University of Tokyo - Wednesday, July 29th, 2009, 17:00 h
Venue: Inamori Hall, Kyoto University - Thursday, July 30th, 2009, 17:00 h
Venue: Senri Life Science Center, Osaka
If you are interested in attending one of these free events, please contact sandra.ebert@leica-microsystems.com for further information.
Office Phone: +49 6441 29-2528
Abstract
MULTI-SCALE IMAGING OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM: Where's the Dark Matter?
Mark H. Ellisman, Ph.D., Professor of Neurosciences; Director of the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR) (http://www.ncmir.ucsd.edu) - at the Center for Research in Biological Systems (http://crbs.ucsd.edu) in La Jolla, California at the University of California, San Diego.
Experimental advances of the past few decades have given the individual neuroscientist an increasingly powerful arsenal of tools for obtaining new information, extending from molecular structures to the entire nervous system. Scientists have begun the arduous and challenging process of adapting and assembling neuroscience data at all scales of resolution and across disciplines into computerized databases and other easily accessed sources.
These multi-scale brain anatomy databases will complement the vast structural and sequence databases created to catalogue, organize and analyze gene sequences and protein products. A general premise underlying several movements in modern brain research is that with accomplishments like "complete" knowledge of the genomes, solutions of all protein structures, determination of the functioning of key subcellular structures and a map or wiring diagram of the connections of the nervous system - we will next require an information infrastructure that facilitates cooperative assembly of these different forms of data.
The ability to explore such a multi-scale composite of knowledge about the brain can be expected to facilitate derivation of new understanding of how the components of the nervous system provide a basis for its complex properties. Our U.C. San Diego-based group has been leading several interdisciplinary projects central to this grand challenge. While our main goal at the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research in San Diego (NCMIR) is to develop advanced technologies which deliver new fundamental understanding of structures on the scale of 1 nm to 100's of µm, a dimensional range that encompasses macromolecular complexes, organelles, and multi-component structures like synapses and key cellular interactions, we have also developed an information infrastructure that is intended to allow these microscopy derived data to be placed in the context of the complex organization of entire nervous systems.
For example, we have developed information systems such as the Whole Brain Catalog and Cell-Centered Database that are tools for mapping molecular and cellular brain anatomy into shared multi-scale mouse brain atlases and databases. To help populate these computerized multi-scale data repositories, our group at NCMIR has developed and disseminated many new molecular labeling methods which allow the same specimens to be examined with both advanced ultra-wide field laser-scanning light microscopy and multi-resolution 3-dimensional electron microscopy methods, like electron tomography.
These new labeling and imaging methods are being used to help produce correlated light and electron microscopic data that then flow into the whole brain catalog and its associated databases and neuroscience information frameworks. Results of research projects where spanning scales has changed previously held views about elements of the nervous will be presented to illustrate the value of multi-scale anatomical approaches. Examples of how these multi-scale microanatomical frameworks are being used with computer simulations tools to test basic of hypotheses about mechanisms for functioning of the nervous system will also be provided.
CV
Research Interests
Professor Ellisman is an expert in the development and application of network and information technologies to advance the biological sciences. His research furthers investigations in the basic molecular and cellular mechanisms of the nervous system and enables the development of advanced technologies in microscopy and computational biology. He is a pioneer in the development of three-dimensional, light and electron microscopy and the application of advanced imaging technologies and computational resources to achieve greater understanding of cellular structure and function, particularly applied to the nervous system.
Ellisman’s telemicroscopy research initiative was instrumental in the evolution of cyberinfrastructure, i.e., the use of advanced networks to connect computational, data storage, visualization, and software tools with rare research assets to address global research priorities.
He recently expanded his efforts to build community resources using emerging capabilities in information technology to two new biology initiatives: a project in neuroscience to create an electronic “Whole Brain Catalog;” and a community-serving cyberinfrastructure for microbial metagenomics known as CAMERA (Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Marine Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis).
Background
In 2001, Ellisman launched the development of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) linking major neuroimaging research centers throughout the U.S. BIRN has been a model for multi-disciplinary, multi-investigator collaborations and data-sharing.
In 1996, he founded the Center for Research in Biological Systems (CRBS), an organized research unit at the University of California, San Diego. CRBS facilitates an interdisciplinary infrastructure in which people from biology, medicine, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and physics can work with those from computer science and information technologies.
In 1992, Ellisman’s research team introduced the idea of telemicroscopy and demonstrated network-enabled, remote use and sharing of the world’s most powerful electron microscopes, including the 3MeV facility in Osaka, Japan.
In 1988, Ellisman established the NIH National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR), an internationally acclaimed technology development center and a widely used research resource that develops new technologies and provides researchers with access to many of the most advanced imaging technologies.
Education, Honors and Appointments
After graduate studies in neurophysiology and behavior, Ellisman earned a Ph.D. in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, studying with Keith R. Porter. Ellisman began his tenure as a Professor of Neurosciences and Bioengineering at UCSD in 1977. Since then he has received several UCSD teaching and lecturing awards including the Department of Neurosciences Award for Outstanding Teaching in 1987 and 1992, and the University Lecturer in Biomedicine in 2001. He also led for the University of California System the development of a 40-university consortium, the National Partnership for Advanced Computing Infrastructure (NPACI). The NPACI was supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) and Ellisman served as the interdisciplinary coordinator and led the Neuroscience activities for NPACI as well as the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) from 1995 to 2004.
In addition to being a Founding Fellow of the American Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Ellisman has received numerous awards including a Jacob Javits award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Creativity Award from the NSF. Ellisman has been appointed scientific advisor to numerous national and international organizations, and is frequently invited to lecture on neuroscience and bioinformatics topics.
