Researchers at the P4Health Center now have access to the Iconeus One system. This addition to the research platforms will help them investigate how changes in astrocyte function affect brain networks and their response to experimental treatments.
P4Health—Centre of Excellence for Precise Phenotyping and BioDataBanking focuses on understanding the biological mechanisms underlying brain disorders and identifying opportunities for therapeutic intervention. Astrocytes regulate synaptic function, support brain metabolism and help coordinate local blood supply with neuronal activity. The researchers aim to understand how disturbances in these functions contribute to disease and whether targeting them can improve brain function and behaviour.
Functional ultrasound imaging (fUS) detects small changes in cerebral blood volume with high sensitivity and spatial resolution, including in deep brain regions. These vascular responses provide an indirect measure of brain activity. By analysing how signals vary together across regions, researchers can assess functional connectivity and its changes in disease models and following treatment.
In preclinical models of psychiatric and neurological disease, the researchers will assess whether interventions targeting astrocytes affect relevant brain networks and whether these effects are accompanied by improvements in behaviour. They also aim to identify reproducible imaging measures for development and validation as biomarkers of disease processes or treatment response.
“Our ambition is to strengthen the biological basis for developing treatments. Patients with similar symptoms may have different underlying disease mechanisms. Understanding these differences will help us identify therapeutic targets and, ultimately, select treatments that address the biology of the individual patient,” says Prof. Bastian Hengerer, Director of the P4Health Center at Łukasiewicz – PORT.
The Iconeus One system supports this effort by connecting the Center’s research on cellular mechanisms with brain network function. It was purchased as part of the project P4Health: Centre of Excellence for Precise Phenotyping and BioData Banking for Personalised Brain Health, funded by the European Union under Priority 2 of the European Funds for a Modern Economy Programme 2021–2027 (FENG).
