A team led by Nobel laureate Ardem Patapoutian at Scripps Research, working with collaborators at the Allen Institute, has secured a five-year, $14.2 million NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award to build what they describe as the first atlas of interoception—the internal sensory system that helps keep breathing, blood pressure and digestion in balance. ([eurekalert.org](https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1101449?utm_source=openai))
Interoception, sometimes called the body’s “hidden sixth sense,” refers to the neural pathways that monitor internal signals such as heart rate, blood pressure, digestion and immune activity—largely outside conscious awareness. The project’s goal is to chart those pathways in unprecedented anatomical and molecular detail, laying groundwork for future studies of how the brain and body stay synchronized. (eurekalert.org)
Scripps Research said the award will support a coordinated effort to produce the first reference atlas of interoceptive circuits. The work is funded through the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program under the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award mechanism, which backs unusually innovative, paradigm-shifting projects and was established in 2009. (eurekalert.org)
Patapoutian—Presidential Endowed Chair in Neurobiology at Scripps Research and co-recipient of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine—will lead the effort. His team includes Scripps Research professor and HHMI Investigator Li Ye; Bosiljka Tasic, Director of Molecular Genetics at the Allen Institute; and co‑investigator Xin Jin, an associate professor at Scripps Research and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Freeman Hrabowski Scholar. Titles are as reported by the institutions. (eurekalert.org)
“My team is honored that the NIH is supporting the kind of collaborative science needed to study such a complex system,” Patapoutian said in the announcement. Ye added, “We hope our results will help other scientists ask new questions about how internal organs and the nervous system stay in sync.” Jin said, “Interoception is fundamental to nearly every aspect of health, but it remains a largely unexplored frontier of neuroscience.” (eurekalert.org)
According to Scripps Research, the group will label sensory neurons and use whole‑body imaging to trace their routes from the spinal cord into organs, including the heart and gastrointestinal tract, creating high‑resolution 3D maps. In parallel, the team plans genetic profiling to distinguish cell types across tissues such as the gut, bladder and fat. Together, these datasets are intended to form a standardized framework for the body’s internal sensory wiring. (eurekalert.org)
Researchers say disruptions in interoception have been linked in prior work to conditions including autoimmune disorders, chronic pain, neurodegenerative diseases and high blood pressure—connections they hope a comprehensive atlas will help clarify for future diagnostic and therapeutic advances. (eurekalert.org)
