Tyler Nelson, Air Force Research Laboratory, 711th Human Performance Wing | Biotechnology

Great Minds Think Alike!: The modern battlefield places a premium on Warfighter cognitive performance and resiliency. Multi-domain battlespaces and high-tempo operations stress our Warfighters, impacting mission success. Developing countermeasures to sustain or enhance Warfighter cognitive performance in the face of operational stress is imperative. The above image represents to separate human brain cultures of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived glutaminergic neurons (blue = nuclei counterstain, white = MAP2 dendritic marker) connecting in the middle (red = βIII-tubulin axonal marker). This brain-on-a-chip platform technology allows us to characterize human neuron responses to common Air Force (greater DoD) stressors, such as hypoxia, nutrient deprivation, fatigue, and extreme cold exposure. Great Minds Think Like...we like to think that both ‘brains’ on this device enable laboratory cognition via direct synaptic communication, allowing us to test potential countermeasures for optimizing neural connectivity, synchrony, and activity, all hallmarks of cognitive performance. Contributors: M. Tyler Nelson; Eric J. Romer; Eric J. Reed; Matthew W. Grogg