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 - 3:55 PM:
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.

 

3:55 PM - 4:15 PM:
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.

 

4:15 PM - 4:40 PM:
The Utah Optrode array for large volume optogenetic manipulation in the non-human primate brain

Alessandra Angelucci and Steve Blair
Moran Eye Institute, and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Utah (United States)

Optogenetics studies in non-human primates (NHPs) are crucial for understanding neural circuit function and dysfunction in human brain disorders. NHP optogenetics has been hampered by the lack of devices for light delivery to deep neural tissue across large areas. We developed the Utah Optrode Array (UOA), a 10x10 array of penetrating glass light-guides, tiling a 4x4mm2 area, bonded to interleaved 10x10 needle-aligned and 9x9 interstitial µLED arrays, for independent photostimulation of deep and superficial brain tissue. Extensive bench and in vivo testing in macaque primary visual cortex demonstrated that the UOA allows for spatiotemporally patterned photostimulation of deep cortical layers with sub-millimeter resolution, at the scale of single cortical layers and columns, over a large volume. This selectivity can be scaled up to multiple layers and columns by varying the number of simultaneously activated μLEDs and/or the light irradiance, allowing for high experimental flexibility. The UOA will improve our understanding of neural circuit function in NHPs, and the circuit-level basis of human brain disorders, and offers great potential for clinical applications.

Alessandra Angelucci is the Mary Boesche Endowed Chair and a Professor at the Moran Eye Institute, University of Utah. She received her MD from the University of Roma, “La Sapienza”. her PhD from MIT, and her postdoctoral training at University College London. Her laboratory studies the structure and function of neural circuits in the primate visual cortex. Her group pioneered optogenetics in the non-human primate and applies novel viral and optogenetic tools to understand cortico-cortical communication and the role of inhibitory circuits in visual perception.

Steve Blair received BS and MS degrees from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 1991 and 1993, respectively, and the PhD degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1998. Since 1998, he has been with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Prof. Blair's research interests include neural interfaces, plasmonics, slow-light nonlinear optics, photonic microsystems, and microarray technology. He is an SPIE Fellow and an Optica Senior Member.

 

4:40 PM - 4:50 PM:
Q&A for plenary speakers

4:50 PM - 5:20 PM:
Emerging Topics in Neurophotonics
Authors will give a brief overview of their technical presentations, highlighting exciting new topics in the field from up and coming researchers.
Featuring the following speakers:

Mingjun Zhao, NYU Langone Health (United States)
13302-24

Katherine L. Perdue, Kernel (United States)
13302-31

Siyuan Rao, Binghamton Univ. (United States)
13303-7

Lamiae Abdeladim, Univ. of California, Berkeley (United States)
13304-9

Mamadou Diop, Western Univ. (Canada)
13307-10

Haowen Zhou, Caltech (United States)
13333-3

 

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.