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Jacques Carolan

@jacquescarolan.bsky.social

140 followers 120 following 29 posts

Applied Physicist & Neuroscientist || Current: Programme Director @ ARIA || Previous: Neuroscience @ UCL & Quantum Computing @ MIT || He/Him https://www.aria.org.uk https://jacquescarolan.github.io

www.aria.org.uk

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Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · Jan 20

🚨I’m super excited to announce the teams we’re funding as part of our Precision Neurotechnologies programme.🚨
They’ll work on the next-gen tech that’ll allow us to understand + treat a wider range of brain disorders than ever before. Read more below (1/3) @aria-research.bsky.social

Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) @aria-research.bsky.social · Jan 20

We’re excited to announce the 18 teams we’re funding in Precision Neurotechnologies 🧠 They’ll work to unlock new ways to interface with the brain at the neural circuit level, with unprecedented precision. (1/3)

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Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · 2d

Finally: on a personal note this has been such a wild journey. I spent 10 years building quantum computers and then jacked it all in to try and become a neuroscientist (I don't have high-school biology lol). The reason I could do this is because of wonderful friends at the Neural Computation Lab!

Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · 2d

Together, this is a blueprint for defining synaptic plasticity rules *during behaviour*, with direct voltage readout on standard 2-photon rigs. Check out the paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

All-optical voltage interrogation for probing synaptic plasticity in vivo - Nature Communications

Reliable measuring the voltage dynamics of individual neurons in the intact brain is significantly challenging. Here authors developed an all-optical method combining two-photon voltage imaging and optogenetics to measure and induce synaptic plasticity in vivo, revealing LTP of inhibition in cerebellar circuits and providing a blueprint to link synaptic changes to learning.

www.nature.com

Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · 2d

Finally, we used this to probe synaptic plasticity. Pairing climbing fibre input before granule cell activation induced potentiation of IPSPs, lasting at least 40 min. Smaller IPSPs potentiated more, and neighbours co-potentiated — revealing circuit-level learning rules.

Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · 2d

Because we could image full dendritic arbors across multiple cells, we saw rich circuit dynamics: precise synchrony of CF-evoked events, spatially diverse inhibition across branches, and global vs local patterns of dendritic activity.

Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · 2d

With this, we captured high-fidelity recordings of spontaneous and sensory-evoked complex spikes, optogenetically evoked IPSPs (via feedforward inhibition) + even the occasional EPSP!

Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · 2d

We expressed JEDI-2Psub in Purkinje cell dendrites and opsins in cerebellar granule cells. This enables us to both image voltage at postsynaptic dendrites and precisely activate presynaptic inputs with light.

Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · 2d

At the heart of this is a new voltage indicator — JEDI-2Psub — from colleagues at the St.Pierre Lab. Optimised for subthreshold signals, it gives ~3.5× larger responses near rest compared to JEDI-2P. This makes it ideal for capturing synaptic potentials.

Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · 2d

SUPER excited that my first ever *real* neuroscience paper is published today in Nat Comms!🥳

We combined two-photon voltage imaging ⚡️and optogenetics 🔦to probe synaptic plasticity in the cerebellum of awake behaving mice. 🧵

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Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · Aug 29

That’s the vision we’re exploring.

If you’re working on transformative, unconventional ideas to 1000x the scale of neurotech or have answers to the following questions — I’d love to hear from you!

📖 Full post: link.aria.org.uk/jacquessubst...

Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · Aug 29

Neurotech needs the same inflection point.

From invasive, last-resort procedures → simple, scalable, globally accessible platforms.

The 1950s had the transistor. Today the convergence of engineered biology + hardware could make a surgery-free, platform neurotechnology possible

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Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · Aug 29

I think cardiology in the 1950s is a great case study, where treating heart block required open-heart surgery.

The leap wasn’t “better surgery.”
It was the transvenous lead — a minimally invasive access route that unlocked millions of pacemaker implants/year. ❤️⚡

Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · Aug 29

DBS for PD is a great proof point: effective, approved, reimbursed… yet only a fraction of people eligible receive it.

Complex surgery imposes a series of stacked, multiplicative barriers that fundamentally limit scalability.

So what do we do?

Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · Aug 29

Emerging therapies show real promise:

⚡ Targeted electrical stimulation for intractable psychiatric disorders
🧬 Cell therapies for neurodegenerative disease

But they won’t scale to the millions who need them.
doi.org/10.1016/j.br...
doi.org/10.1016/j.pa...

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2025.08.017

t.co

Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · Aug 29

We’re facing a global brain-health crisis:

🧠 Brain disorders = biggest disease burden worldwide
💔 3× that of heart disease
💰 Costs US + Europe $1.7 trillion annually

And the gap between need & treatment is only widening.
doi.org/10.1159/0005...

Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · Aug 29

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we scale neurotech.

Current approaches (e.g. DBS for PD) aren’t meeting the need. Emerging ones may fare even worse.

That’s why I’m scoping a new @aria-research.bsky.social programme to develop neurotech built for scale.

Check out my post +share feedback!👇

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Reposted by Jacques Carolan

Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) @aria-research.bsky.social · Aug 21

What if we could engineer the innate immune system for broad, long-lasting resilience?

Our latest thesis, Sustained Viral Resistance, proposes using AI, synthetic biology + materials chemistry to catalyse a new era of innate immunotherapies.

Dive in/give feedback: link.aria.org.uk/sii-progthes...

Sculpting Innate Immunity

The immune system sustains human health via the complementary action of its two branches: the innate and the adaptive immune systems. Precision modulation of innate immunity can unlock transformative ...

link.aria.org.uk

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Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · Mar 12

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · Mar 12

wait... fungi display action potentials?!🤯

"Two types of spiking activity are uncovered: high-frequency (period 2.6 min) and low-frequency (period 14 min) .."

is this well known in biology? like, if I actually studied it at school would I know this? so cool!

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Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · Jan 27

Love this. Definitely the cerebellum. Specifically how different cell types map onto specific components of an adaptive filter www.nature.com/articles/nrn...

Reposted by Jacques Carolan

Motif Neurotech @motifneuro.bsky.social · Jan 20

We've been selected by @aria-research.bsky.social to develop a network of neural devices designed to monitor and regulate mental and cognitive states without brain surgery. The UK-based program led by @jacquescarolan.bsky.social is contributing £69M to unlock the full potential of #neurotech.

Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) @aria-research.bsky.social · Jan 20

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Reposted by Jacques Carolan

Susanne Ahmari @ahmarilab.bsky.social · Jan 20

🚨 hey hey everyone interested in non-invasive precision #neurotech for neuropsych disease: ARIA's Precision Neurotechnologies Program teams announced!

Kudos to PD @jacquescarolan.bsky.social for putting together an amazing group👏👏👏 Excitedly watching this space 👀🍿

www.aria.org.uk/opportunity-...

Precision Neurotechnologies

Backed by £69m, this programme aims to unlock new methods to interface with the human brain at the cellular level, with unprecedented precision.

www.aria.org.uk

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Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · Jan 20

Thanks for amplifying Susanne! Inspired by your awesome work over at Wellcome Leap.

Reposted by Jacques Carolan

Jake Toth @jaketoth.bsky.social · Jan 20

It’s so exciting to see all the newly funded ARIA Precision Neurotechnologies projects get announced!
A full list can be found here:
www.aria.org.uk/opportunity-...

Precision Neurotechnologies

Backed by £69m, this programme aims to unlock new methods to interface with the human brain at the cellular level, with unprecedented precision.

www.aria.org.uk

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Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · Jan 20

A 'programme' should bring teams together to create some kind of nonlinear reaction which just isn't possible by funding them in isolation. I can't wait to see the synergies and interactions that come out of this incredible group 🧪(3/3)

Jacques Carolan @jacquescarolan.bsky.social · Jan 20

Some of the things I'm most excited by are (a) the diversity of technologies we can support (biohybrids🧫, gene therapies🧬 microscopic CMOS robots🤖 acoustic🔊 and electrical interfaces⚡️) and (b) the variety of institutions (academia, startups, hospitals, non-profits) (2/3)