Alan Jasanoff

Bio

Alan Jasanoff is a bioengineer and neuroscientist who is pioneering next generation brain imaging techniques for studying mechanisms of behavior and cognition. Jasanoff's laboratory applies techniques from chemistry, molecular biology, and nanoscience to create probes for noninvasive detection of neural activity, and uses them to map and interpret previously inaccessible aspects of brain function. Jasanoff earned an AB in biochemical sciences and a PhD in biophysics from Harvard University, as well as an MPhil in Chemistry from Cambridge University. He is a Professor of Biological Engineering with joint appointments in the departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and of Nuclear Science and Engineering. He currently directs the MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering and the Neurobiological Engineering Training Program. Jasanoff has been a Whitehead Fellow and a Raymond and Beverley Sackler Foundation Scholar. His first book, “The Biological Mind: How Brain, Body, and Environment Collaborate to Make Us Who We Are” was published in 2018 and featured as a top science book of 2018 by Nature, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal.

Awards

• Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation Scholar, 2004
• McKnight Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Award, 2006
• Director's New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health, 2007
  

Research

Pushing the frontiers of MRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revolutionized our understanding of the human brain, but the method is now approaching the limit of its capabilities. Alan Jasanoff hopes to break through this limit and to develop new technologies for imaging the molecular and cellular phenomena that underlie brain function.

Beyond blood flow

Functional MRI takes advantage of the fact that when a particular brain region becomes more active it consumes more oxygen, and blood flow increases to that region increases to compensate. These changes can be detected during a brain scan because the blood protein hemoglobin changes its magnetic properties when it is depleted of oxygen.

Although fMRI has yielded much valuable information, it suffers from two fundamental limitations. First, changes in the blood are slow relative to the speed of neural activity, making it impossible to measure rapid brain events. Second, the source of the activity can only be localized to the nearest blood vessel. It is not precise enough to provide detailed information about activity in specific neurons and circuits.

Jasanoff is working to overcome these limitations. He is devising new contrast agents whose magnetic properties are altered by events in the neurons themselves, rather than their surrounding blood vessels. If successful, such an approach could reveal an unprecedented level of information about brain activity as it unfolds in real time.

The next generation of contrast agents

When neurons become active, they rapidly take up calcium from their environment. Jasanoff hopes to visualize these rapid changes using magnetic nanoparticles that are coupled to a calcium-binding protein. In collaboration with colleagues at the MIT chemistry department, he is also developing a new class of molecules that can be engineered to accumulate inside cells and to reveal changes in the intracellular chemical environment.

Another one of Jasanoff's approaches is to develop indicator molecules that can be genetically encoded and targeted to specific cell types. Jasanoff is developing an indicator for dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is depleted in Parkinson's disease. Many psychiatric drugs and substances of abuse target dopamine receptors in the brain. So the ability to detect changes in dopamine in living animals would have many applications for the study of brain disorders. Eventually, Jasanoff hopes it may be possible to adapt the approach for use in human subjects, thereby providing a powerful new tool for clinical research and drug development.

Publications

view publications on PubMed

News

• Using MRI, engineers have found a way to detect light deep in the brain
• Reevaluating an approach to functional brain imaging
• New sensor uses MRI to detect light deep in the brain
• New MRI probe can reveal more of the brain’s inner workings
• Scientists seek insight into Parkinson’s, addiction by tracking gene expression in the brain
• How dopamine drives brain activity
• New MRI sensor can image activity deep within the brain
• Monitoring electromagnetic signals in the brain with MRI
• Calcium-based MRI sensor enables more sensitive brain imaging
• Metal-free MRI contrast agent could be safer for some patients
• A radiation-free approach to imaging molecules in the brain
• Mapping serotonin dynamics in the living brain
• Engineers design magnetic cell sensors
• Engineers design magnetic cell sensors
• Jasanoff among fifteen MIT scientists to receive NIH BRAIN Initiative grants
• Alan Jasanoff: Delving deep into the brain
• Jasanoff to co-direct MIT's Center for Neurobiological Engineering
• Alan Jasanoff is designing imaging sensors that could help reveal the brain’s inner workings
• New technique offers a more detailed view of brain activity