LAMBDA NEUROSCIENCE FOUNDATION 

Lambda Neuroscience Foundation (Lambda) is  nonprofit initiative being developed with the aim of accelerating new neuroscience discovery. Lambda will accomplish this by removing technical and financial bottlenecks in brain tissue analysis so that biomedical investigators get highly detailed data they might not have the capability and/or means to otherwise obtain.  Lambda will also build public engagement with neuroscience through hands-on education, community outreach, and open access resources.

ADVANCING BRAIN RESEARCH & STEM ENGAGEMENT

The scale and detail of Lambda's images. An example brain section imaged with 4 color channels is shown at 100% and 7% zoom factor. The border color of the images indicate the images' location within the larger frame. In the upper left corner is a mock up of Lambda's database website showing the location of the example section within the the database of all sections, and the relative location of the images within the complete, example section. The specific shape of individual brain cells (neurons) is easily visible throughout the entire brain using Lamba's process.

OUR CHARITABLE PURPOSE & MISSION

Lambda will support biomedical researchers studying disorders of the nervous system by providing highly specalized histological processing and imaging services at no cost. Many neurological and neurodevelopmental diseases, including autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson's disease, stroke, and brain cancer, are investigated using mouse model studies. At defined experimental endpoints, researchers preserve brain samples from these studies and submit them to Lambda for sectioning, staining, imaging, and digital analysis. The resulting images enable investigators to examine disease-related changes throughout the brain at high resolution and with greater analytical depth than is often feasible in standard laboratory workflows. In return for receiving these services free of charge, participating researchers contribute the digital images generated through the foundation to an online open-access database allowing each researcher's tissue contribution to build and strengthen a collaborative scientific resource.

Current Status & Donation Disclosure: Lambda is not yet operating a laboratory or accepting research samples. Lambda has not yet received recognition of federal tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3); therefore, contributions to the current GoFundMe campaign are not currently tax-deductible. This disclosure will be updated when Lambda’s legal and tax status changes.

 

OUR COMMUNITY IMPACT

Lambda Neuroscience Foundation will not only support scientific research, but will also increase the public's understanding of how biomedical discovery occurs. The foundation will develop public-facing, online lab diaries and educational content that explain both the scientific basis of brain disease and the methods used to study it. Lambda will also provide guided laboratory tours for middle school students, and hands-on lab experiences for high school students interested in the life sciences. This model connects donor support directly to visible public benefit: philanthropy helps advance real biomedical research, which in turn creates meaningful educational opportunities for students and the wider Los Angeles community. 

WHAT WE DO & WHY IT'S MORE

Lambda will operate as a free, specialized histology service for neuroscience laboratories. Researchers conduct their experiments generating brain tissue samples within their laboratories, and then send those samples to Lambda similar to the process of medical doctors sending in patient biopsies for lab analysis. Lambda then performs the downstream sample processing needed to transform tissue into rigorous, highly granular digital image datasets that are indexed and available to researchers through Lambda’s dedicated database website. The goal is to provide researchers with a more information-rich view of the brain that is standardized across brain disease models to facilitate new molecular comparisons and insights, while reducing the technical and financial burden placed on individual laboratories.

The overall process:

Normal brain function strongly depends on properly constructed cellular architecture. Disease-related cellular and structural changes are highly informative of the molecular pathways affected by the disease, and therefore, what scientists can target to correct it. Histology (microscopic analysis of biological tissue) is one of the principal ways scientists determine how disease alters the brain because it allows visualization of molecular changes at the single-cell level. In many conventional workflows, however, histological analysis is limited to selected regions of the brain and relatively few imaging channels, which constrains how much information can be extracted from a given specimen. Lambda’s model is intentionally designed to expand both the scale and the detail of brain tissue visualization (see images labeled A and B for more detail).

Typically only 2 channels are used, allowing the researcher to identify 4 separate cellular populations. But with Lambda's method, up to 6 channels can be used allowing for up to 64 populations to be identified simultaneously (a 16x increase). By combining broader brain coverage with higher-dimensional imaging, the foundation aims to help researchers "see" brain diseases in an unprecedented and comprehensive way. This complete approach to whole brain visualization will lead to new insights and discoveries in brain disease progression, and will ultimately guide the development of potential new therapies.

WHAT WE NEED TO GET STARTED

To launch operations, we need two pieces of foundational equipment: a vibratome for reproducible brain sectioning, and a fluorescence microscope for multichannel imaging. Additional financial support is needed to fund laboratory space, utilities, compliance, materials, digital infrastructure, and educational content. Together, these resources will enable Lambda to begin providing free scientific services while building the open-access and educational programs central to its mission.

If you would like to help Lambda open its doors, please visit our GoFundMe page to support our initial fundraiser for these two vital pieces of equipment.