Abstract - B Hyle Park
Our goal is to develop and validate a revolutionary technology: intrinsic, non-invasive imaging of neural activity in the brain at cellular resolution. Neural activity produces tiny physical changes in the geometry and refractive index of cells, which are measurable based on interferometric methods that are well-established in physics and are the underpinnings of optical coherence tomography (OCT). Unlike fluorescence methods, interference measurements are non-invasive and do not require dye loading or genetic manipulation. With phase-sensitive interference measurements, we can, in principle, examine the activity of many individual neurons in a massively parallel way. We propose a combination of OCT-derived measures of changes in local attenuation coefficient and optical phase to directly detect neural activity with micrometer-level and 3D spatial resolution on a millisecond time scale. Such detection would be entirely orthogonal to and easily combined with current techniques to, for example, detect optogenetically-stimulated activity without potential spectral overlap with a genetically-encoded calcium indicator or to detect activity in fluorescently labeled neural types. This technology development may transform scientific investigation of the circuitry and function of the brain, and produce entirely new approaches to diagnosing various pathologies and monitoring the progress of treatment.
AWARDS
| Principal Investigator | Institution | Title | Abstract |
| Andersen, Richard | California Institute of Technology | Engineering Artificial Sensation | View |
| Andrews, Anne | University of California, Los Angeles | Nanoscale Neurotransmitter Sensors | View |
| Bloodgood, Brenda | University of California San Diego | A novel toolkit for visualizing and manipulating activity-induced transcription in living brain. | View |
| Chaumeil, Myriam | University of California, San Francisco | In vivo metabolic imaging of neuroinflammation using hyperpolarized 13C | View |
| Cleary, Michael | University of California, Merced | Capturing physiological maps of neural gene expression | View |
| Cohen, Bruce | University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | Nano-optogenetic control of neuronal firing with targeted nanocrystals | View |
| Dai, Hongjie | Stanford University | Deep brain imaging of single neurons in the second near-infrared optical window | View |
| Hall, Drew | University of California, San Diego | Magnetic Monitoring of Neural Activity using Magnetoresistive Nanosensors | View |
| Krubitzer, Leah | University of California, Davis | An integrated system to monitor, image, and regulate neural activity | View |
| Kubby, Joel | University of California, Santa Cruz | Three-Photon Microscopy with Adaptive Optics for Deep Tissue Brain Activity Imaging | View |
| Melosh, Nicholas | Stanford University | Parallel Solid State Intracellular Patch-Clamping with Biomimetic Probes | View |
| Park, B. Hyle | University of California, Riverside | Label-free 4D optical detection of neural activity | View |
| Portera-Cailliau, Carlos | University of California, Los Angeles | High-speed interrogation of network activity with frequency domain multiplexing | View |
| Shanechi, Maryam | University of Southern California | Control-Theoretic Neuroprosthetic Design Using Electrocorticography Signals | View |
| Smith, Will | University of California, Santa Barbara | Whole brain imaging in a primative chordate | View |
| Wood, Marcelo | University of California, Irvine | Epigenetic PET tracer for cross-species investigation of age-related memory dysfunction | View |