WPI gets $1.6M to study neurobiological gender differences

The Worcester Polytechnic Institute campus in Worcester.

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Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute will use a new round of funding from the National Institutes of Health to study gender disparities in neurological disorders by analyzing a species of small, soil-dwelling worms.

A team led by Jagan Srinivasan, assistant professor of biology and biotechnology at WPI, received the five-year, $1.6 million award. The worms in question are capable of carrying out all processes required for animal survival, making them great research models, according to WPI. Most of them are self-fertilizing hermaphrodites, but a small number are fully male. That gender differentiation will be used to explore the worms’ neural activity, focusing on a cluster of neurons that allow them to “smell” environmental cues. A diminished sense of smell is an early symptom of Alzheimer’s, according to WPI.

“Focusing on understanding the circuit mechanisms that show gender differences in the worm’s olfactory system may give us new information that is relevant for what is seen in human neuropathology,” said Srinivasan.

Dirk Albrecht, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and co-investigator of the grant, has developed imaging technologies and data processing algorithms to allow researchers to see specific neuronal activity in the worms.

“The new project seeks to image multiple neurons, in multiple worms, responding to multiple stimuli in real time. And we know the responses will be different in each animal,” Albrecht said. “That means we need to develop new technologies to push the existing boundaries of imaging throughput and analysis to handle the experimental load. That makes this an exciting and important challenge.”