New Article on bioRxiv: High-Speed, Cortex-Wide Volumetric Recording of Neuroactivity at Cellular Resolution using Light Beads Microscopy

New Article on bioRxiv: High-Speed, Cortex-Wide Volumetric Recording of Neuroactivity at Cellular Resolution using Light Beads Microscopy

News, Publications
Excited to share our new manuscript showing volumetric Ca imaging of 1 million neurons across the mouse cortex at cellular resolution using Light Beads Microscopy (LBM). Two-photon microscopy together with genetically encodable calcium indicators has emerged as a standard tool for high-resolution imaging of neuroactivity in scattering brain tissue. However, its various realizations have not overcome the inherent tradeoffs between speed and spatiotemporal sampling in a principled manner which would be necessary to enable, amongst other applications, mesoscale volumetric recording of neuroactivity at cellular resolution and speed compatible with resolving calcium transients. In this paper, we introduce Light Beads Microscopy (LBM), a scalable and spatiotemporally optimal acquisition approach limited only by fluorescence life-time, where a set of axially-separated and temporally-distinct foci record the entire axial imaging range near-simultaneously, enabling volumetric…
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“HyMS  microscopy” published in Cell

“HyMS microscopy” published in Cell

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Our paper entitled “Volumetric Ca2+ Imaging in the Mouse Brain using Hybrid Multiplexed Sculpted Light (HyMS) Microscopy” has been published in Cell. We have developed a modular platform named Hybrid Multiplexed Sculpted Light (HyMS) microscopy featuring a systems-wide design paradigm that maximizes the acquisition volume size and speed while maintaining fidelity for obtaining single neuron activity traces. Our modular design utilizes a hybrid two- and three-photon acquisition and allows for volumetric recording of neuroactivity at single-cell resolution within up to 1 × 1 × 1.22 mm volumes at up to 17 Hz in awake behaving mice. We establish the capabilities and potential of the different configurations of HyMS microscopy at depth and across brain regions by applying it to in-vivo recording of up to 12,000 neurons in mouse auditory cortex,…
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New publication in Cell

New publication in Cell

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Our paper entitled "A force-induced directional switch of a molecular motor enables parallel microtubule bundle formation" by Maxim I. Molodtsov et al. has been published in Cell. Microtubule-organizing centers (MTOCs) nucleate microtubules that can grow autonomously in any direction. To generate bundles of parallel microtubules originating from a single MTOC, the growth of multiple microtubules needs to coordinated, but the underlying mechanism is unknown. Here, we show that a conserved two-component system consisting of the plus-endtracker EB1 and the minus-end-directed molecular motor Kinesin-14 is sufficient to promote parallel microtubule growth. The underlying mechanism relies on the ability of Kinesin-14 to guide growing plus ends along existing microtubules. The generality of this finding is supported by yeast, Drosophila, and human EB1/Kinesin-14 pairs. We demonstrate that plus-end guiding involves a directional switch…
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New publication in Nature Communications

New publication in Nature Communications

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Our paper entitled “Direct Detection of a Single Photon by Humans” by Tinsley J. N. et. al., has been published in Nature Communications. In this study we have shown that humans are capable of detecting a single photon onto their eyes with a probability above chance. This was done by developing a quantum light source based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) which can generate single-photon states of light and combining it with a state-of-the-art psychophysics procedure. Thereby we could show that the human visual system including the post-processing performed by the retina and the brain can detect a single photon incident onto the eye. Read the publication or a short summary. Please have also a look at the Nature News article by Davide Castelvecchi as well as the articles on…
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New publication in J. Phys. Chem. B

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Together with our colleagues at the Institute for Biophysical Dynamics at the University of Chicago, we have developed a method using infrared spectroscopy and atomistic modeling that would allow to better understand the mechanism behind the extreme ion selectivity and transport properties in ion channels. Our findings have recently been published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. [caption id="attachment_1312" align="aligncenter" width="584"] Location of the potassium channel KcsA in the cell membrane of bacteria. The schematic illustration on the right shows the changes in strength and direction of vibrational coupling inside the filter depending on the ion species, as found by the study. @David S. Goodsell & RCSB Protein Data Bank[/caption] Ion channels are essential structures of life. Ion channels are specialized pores in the cell membrane and move charged…
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