Session Chairs

Shy Shoham NYU Langone Health (United States)

Anna Wang Roe Nathan Kline Institute (United States)

 

3:30 PM - 3:35 PM:
Welcome and opening remarks

3:35 PM - 5:20 PM:
Presentations

High-sensitivity optogenetic silencing with novel OptoGPCRs

Ofer Yizhar Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel)

Long-range communication between brain regions allows synchrony and coordination between distant neural circuits, and is the foundation for complex information processing and behavior. While optogenetic tools have been widely used for the excitation of neuronal cell bodies and axons, optogenetic silencing of long-range transmission has posed significant challenges. We designed a new set of inhibitory bistable rhodopsins that couple to the Gi/o signaling pathway and can be used to suppress synaptic release in vitro and in vivo, in a spatially and temporally precise manner. These new tools allow highly light-sensitive silencing and facilitate spectral multiplexing for combined modulation and imaging, opening new and exciting avenues in basic and translational optogenetic modulation.

Ofer Yizhar is a professor of Brain Sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He received his PhD from the Tel Aviv University and did his postdoctoral work with Karl Deisseroth at Stanford University. He established his own research group at the Weizmann Institute in 2011. His lab develops new techniques for studying the brain, and uses these techniques to understand the brain circuits involved in memory, decision making and social behavior.

 

Combining light and sound for scalable brain interrogation and stimulation

Daniel Razansky Univ. Zürich (Switzerland)

Development of more efficient and less intrusive ways to alter and observe brain activity is instrumental towards tackling neurological diseases in an aging population and for advancing basic neuroscience research. Light- and ultrasound-based technologies are growingly used for brain interrogation, modulation of neural activity, and treatment of brain diseases. The talk focuses on our latest additions to the arsenal of multi-scale neuroimaging techniques, including functional optoacoustic neuro-tomography for whole-brain imaging, localization optoacoustic tomography, large-field multifocal illumination microscopy, and super-resolution fluorescence localization imaging. The new methods enable transcranial large-scale recordings of neural and hemodynamic activity and molecular agents at penetration depths and spatio-temporal resolution scales not covered with the existing micro- and macro-scopic functional neuroimaging techniques. Examples of applications include large-scale monitoring of neural activity indicators, tracking circulating cells and microrobots, targeted molecular imaging of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, studying microcirculation in stroke. Our current efforts are also geared toward employing optical and optoacoustic techniques for monitoring the effects of transcranial ultrasound stimulation of the living brain. The marriage between light and sound thus brings together the highly complementary advantages of both modalities toward high precision interrogation, stimulation, and therapy of the brain with strong impact in the fields of neuromodulation, gene and drug delivery, or noninvasive treatments of neurological and neurodegenerative disorders.

Daniel Razansky is full Professor of Biomedical Imaging with a double appointment at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich and Department of Information Technologies and Electrical Engineering, ETH Zurich in Switzerland. Previously he was Professor of Molecular Imaging Engineering at the Technical University and Helmholtz Center Munich in Germany. He earned Biomedical and Electrical Engineering degrees from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and conducted postdoctoral research at the Harvard Medical School. His Lab pioneered several technologies for pre-clinical research and clinical diagnostics, among them the multi-spectral optoacoustic tomography and its multimodal combinations with therapeutic and diagnostic ultrasound, fluorescence microscopy, and magnetic resonance imaging. Prof. Razansky’s research has been recognized by the German Innovation Prize, IPPA James Smith Prize, and multiple awards from the ERC, NIH, HFSP, SNSF, and DFG. He is a Fellow of SPIE.

 

Additional presentations to be announced.

 

5:20 PM - 5:30 PM:
Closing discussion

 

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Event Details

FORMAT: General session with live audience Q&A to follow at end of session.
MENU: Coffee, decaf, and tea will be available outside the presentation room.
SETUP: Theater style seating.