Highlights

(Courtesy of Salk Institute)
Salk researchers developed two wearable microscopes to image cellular activity in previously inaccessible regions of the spinal cord of moving mice in real time.
Bio&Life Sciences

Wearable microscopes help image cellular activity in spinal cords of on-the-move mice

April 5, 2023
Two tiny wearable microscopes for mice are generating high-resolution, high-contrast, multicolor images in real time—providing insight into signaling patterns within spinal cords...
(Courtesy of Osaka Metropolitan University)
A new system allows researchers to control a nematode worm with light-sensitive proteins (opsins) triggered by white, UV, and green.
Bio&Life Sciences

Controlling nematode behavior with light

Jan. 18, 2023
A new optogenetics-based system using various wavelengths of light is poised to significantly accelerate bio-related research.
(Courtesy of Abraham Beyene, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus)
A schematic of DopaFilm shows spatially resolved hotspots of activity (top) and DopaFilm’s fluorescent nanosensors glow brighter when exposed to dopamine (bottom).
Bio&Life Sciences

Material made of fluorescent nanosensors may boost neural discoveries

Oct. 26, 2022
By measuring the release of dopamine and other neurotransmitters, a composite material can help provide a better understanding of chemical neurotransmission.
(Courtesy of L. Fu et al.)
FIGURE 1. The construction of a multichannel fiber photometry system. A light beam from a 488 nm laser is coupled into all multimode fibers simultaneously by an objective. The emitted fluorescence is then collected by the same optical fibers and detected by a sCMOS camera (a). The fiber end faces on the sCMOS camera for the dual-channel mode (b) and four-channel mode (c).
Bio&Life Sciences

Advances in fiber photometry help demystify the brain

Aug. 9, 2022
Increasingly preferred over conventional brain imaging techniques, optical fiber photometry is allowing a better a grasp of the brain’s innerworkings. But this is only the beginning...
FIGURE 1. Three-photon excitation uses 3x the wavelength as conventional one-photon absorption. The 1300 nm excitation scheme shown here is for GCaMP6s, a genetically expressed calcium indicator. Recently Chris Xu and colleagues have demonstrated that 1300 nm can also excite longer-wavelength dyes such as Texas Red, a fluorescent dye that can be bonded to antibodies to label specific cellular components.
Bio&Life Sciences

Laser developments support advanced neuroscience techniques

June 21, 2022
Three-photon imaging and two-photon optogenetic stimulation both benefit from the latest laser developments targeted squarely at neuroscience research.
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Microscopy

Two-photon imaging helps make discovery about light-sensitive cells in baby's retina

A combination of techniques, including two-photon imaging, found that these light-sensitive cells communicate as part of an interconnected network that gives the retina more light...
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Neuroscience

Tapered optical probe helps detect light in the brain

The new method allows the simultaneous collection of signals from various brain regions through the use of a tapered optical probe.
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Neuroscience

Optical nanoprobes could have use in monitoring neural activity

The nanoprobes could show how neural circuits function at an unprecedented scale by monitoring large numbers of individual neurons simultaneously.
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Fluorescence

Fluorescence monitors how protein aggregate present in Alzheimer's grows

Using a fluorescence method, researchers have found a way to track the formation of soluble amyloid beta peptide aggregates implicated in the onset of Alzheimer's disease.