@article {69847, title = {Fast, accurate, and versatile data analysis platform for the quantification of molecular spatiotemporal signals.}, journal = {Cell}, year = {2025}, month = {2025 Apr 04}, abstract = {

Optical recording of intricate molecular dynamics is becoming an indispensable technique for biological studies, accelerated by the development of new or improved biosensors and microscopy technology. This creates major computational challenges to extract and quantify biologically meaningful spatiotemporal patterns embedded within complex and rich data sources, many of which cannot be captured with existing methods. Here, we introduce activity quantification and analysis (AQuA2), a fast, accurate, and versatile data analysis platform built upon advanced machine-learning techniques. It decomposes complex live-imaging-based datasets into elementary signaling events, allowing accurate and unbiased quantification of molecular activities and identification of consensus functional units. We demonstrate applications across a wide range of biosensors, cell types, organs, animal models, microscopy techniques, and imaging approaches. As exemplar findings, we show how AQuA2 identified drug-dependent interactions between neurons and astroglia, as well as distinct sensorimotor signal propagation patterns in the mouse spinal cord.

Preprint:\ https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.02.592259

}, issn = {1097-4172}, doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2025.03.012}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.03.012}, author = {Mi, Xuelong and Chen, Alex Bo-Yuan and Duarte, Daniela and Carey, Erin and Taylor, Charlotte R and Braaker, Philipp N and Bright, Mark and Almeida, Rafael G and Lim, Jing-Xuan and Ruetten, Virginia M S and Wang, Yizhi and Wang, Mengfan and Zhang, Weizhan and Zheng, Wei and Reitman, Michael E and Huang, Yongkang and Wang, Xiaoyu and Li, Lei and Deng, Hanfei and Shi, Song-Hai and Poskanzer, Kira E and Lyons, David A and Nimmerjahn, Axel and Ahrens, Misha B and Yu, Guoqiang} } @article {69471, title = {Norepinephrine changes behavioral state via astroglial purinergic signaling}, journal = {Science}, year = {2024}, month = {2025 May 15}, abstract = {

Both neurons and glia communicate through diffusible neuromodulators; however, how neuron-glial interactions in such neuromodulatory networks influence circuit computation and behavior is unclear. During futility-induced behavioral transitions in the larval zebrafish, the neuromodulator norepinephrine (NE) drives fast excitation and delayed inhibition of behavior and circuit activity. We found that astroglial purinergic signaling implements the inhibitory arm of this motif. In larval zebrafish, NE triggers astroglial release of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), extracellular conversion of ATP into adenosine, and behavioral suppression through activation of hindbrain neuronal adenosine receptors. Our results suggest a computational and behavioral role for an evolutionarily conserved astroglial purinergic signaling axis in NE-mediated behavioral and brain state transitions and position astroglia as important effectors in neuromodulatory signaling.

Preprint:\ https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2024/05/23/2024.05.23.595576

}, doi = {10.1126/science.adq5233}, url = {https://www.science.org/stoken/author-tokens/ST-2654/full}, author = {Chen, Alex B. and Duque, Marc and Wang, Vickie M. and Dhanasekar, Mahalakshmi and Mi, Xuelong and Rymbek, Altyn and Tocquer, Loeva and Narayan, Sujatha and Prober, David and Yu, Guoqiang and Wyart, Claire and Engert, Florian and Ahrens, Misha B.} }