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Critical Resources
Building Critical Resources for Health and Economic Gain
BOOSTING BRAIN POWER
At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), School of Medicine, new construction helped fill a niche in the field of neuroimaging. "There has been a lot of development in techniques for acquiring information about brain structure and function," said UCLA neuroscientist Arthur Toga. "But the development of ways to process, analyze and interpret these data has lagged behind." To address this critical need, the university built the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI).
The centerpiece of the facility is the Data Immersive Visualization Environment (DIVE), a room dominated by a 12-foot, 150-degree, floor-to-ceiling concave screen on which scientists can project real-time computer graphics, high-definition video, or prerecorded demonstrations or slides.
Visually "diving" inside data has been essential to investigators trying to understand the connections among different regions of the brain to build 3-D maps of brain architecture. Toga, who is also the director of LONI, explained that these data "become unwieldy unless you can show them on a 150-degree screen. Then you can see connections that could not otherwise be seen. People enter the DIVE, and right away you can see the light come on. It is really amazing."
The 8,427-square-foot building that houses LONI, constructed with $1.96 million from NCRR in 2000 and matching funds from the university and other sources, brings together neurobiologists, computer scientists, physicists, mathematicians and even graduates from UCLA's School of Design. Toga is an 11-year recipient of P41 grant funding from NCRR for a Biomedical Technology Research Center that makes LONI’s brain-mapping developments available to other scientists.
The Data Immersive Visualization Environment (DIVE) is the centerpiece of the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine. The DIVE features a 12-foot, 150-degree, floor-to-ceiling concave screen on which scientists can project real-time computer graphics, high-definition video, or prerecorded demonstrations or slides. Photo courtesy of the University of California, Los Angeles.
To encourage collaboration and communication among researchers with such disparate backgrounds, the building features many open spaces and glass walls. Display screens in every room allow researchers to share information with each other from anywhere in the building.
Similarly, the building's many curved walls not only are aesthetically pleasing but also mirror the research conducted at LONI. "We deal with biology, and in biology, there aren't many right angles," Toga said. "Whenever we could, we incorporated curved surfaces to reflect the challenges we face in doing science."
Toga mentioned that the only downside of the building is that it already feels too small. "We have a huge waiting list of students and visiting professors who want to come here," he said. "We would like to expand it further."
