The USC Center for Integrative Connectomics investigates why specific brain cell types are vulnerable to neurodegenerative disease—work that aims to identify therapeutic targets and improve patient outcomes. We combine viral tract tracing, spatial transcriptomics, and 3D microscopy in both animal models and human tissue to reveal how distinct cell populations become compromised in disease.
The Mouse Connectome Project (MCP) at USC was completed in 2020 and developed a high-resolution microscopy image dataset using multifluorescent anterograde and retrograde tracers to identify 1,233 circuit pathways across the C57Bl/6 mouse brain. Connectome tracer experiments of 755 injection sites are fully available using the iConnectome viewer.
The CIC maintains active collaborations with the Center for Neuronal Longevity (CNL), a cross-campus, multi-school venture that brings together the Keck School of Medicine, Viterbi School of Engineering, and the School of Pharmacy. The vision for the CNL is to develop a world-leading center of excellence with a focus on adaptive, programmable, interventional bioengineered systems to prevent and treat prevalent neurodegenerative diseases of the brain and retina that have no foreseeable cure.
Director, Center of Integrative Connectomics (CIC)
Assistant Professor of Physiology and Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering
Led by Director Dr. Bienkowski, the CIC brings together USC students and researchers from multiple disciplines to integrate multi-omics technology with brain connectivity mapping, advancing our understanding of spatial biology in health and disease.
Failure of neurons to regenerate after injury in the central nervous system (CNS) is a consequence of diminished intrinsic growth capacity of adult neurons (cell-intrinsic barriers) and inhibitory signals in the extracellular environment (cell-extrinsic barriers).
The CA2 region of the hippocampus is a small, but important brain region that has undergone a transformation by neuroscientists over the last several decades (Dudek et al., 2016). Omitted from the hippocampus ‘trisynaptic circuit’ and overshadowed by the larger neighboring CA3 and CA1, the CA2 has been historically understudied.
Integrating Data Directly into Publications with Augmented Reality and Web-Based Technologies – Schol-AR