Center for Network Neuroscience

The Center for Network Neuroscience was founded in 1987 with support from the Texas Advanced Technology Program, a grant from the Communities Foundation of Texas – made possible by Dallas developer W.W. Caruth Jr. – and the Charles Bowen memorial endowment. The CNNS, an interdisciplinary research center hosted by the Department of Biological Sciences, is known internationally for developing methods to investigate the internal dynamics of small nerve cell ensembles in vitro (outside the body). These ensembles perform the first critical steps of information processing in the human nervous system and are responsible for fundamental communication processes. Specifically, the center has pioneered methods that allow the long-term multichannel investigation of nerve cell networks growing in cell culture on substrate-integrated microelectrode arrays. Several models of array plates as well as recording and life support chambers are built at UNT by students and sold internationally.

The center has led efforts to use nerve cell networks in culture as sensitive assay platforms for neurotoxicology, in drug development and as biosensors. Cumulative direct support for center research has reached $5.6 million.

BY GUENTER W. GROSS, DIRECTOR gross@nervous.cnns.unt.edu

Other web resources:

• www.cnns.org

Other featured articles in this issue:

• UNT debuts :CRQ™ technology at capital campaign gala
• UNT opposes TNRCC permit for asphalt/concrete plant
• THECB grants planning authority for UNT engineering program
• Women's History Month events at UNT
• Time set for Pohl inauguration
• UNT schedules events for International Week
• UNT professor serves as phone-a-friend lifeline for "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" contestant
• UNT Vision forums completed
• Regents approve building name change, raise tuition and fees
• UNT cosponsors 100-year commemoration of community colleges

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