Nonlinear optogenetics: towards all-optical brain activity control and read-out.

The main objective of this interdisciplinary project is to combine expertise in molecular nonlinear optics, biophysics, genetics, neurobiology and physiology in order to develop all-optical methodologies allowing investigating the brain function with cellular and subcellular resolution. Aspects all the way from molecular, over in vitro, to in vivo validation will be addressed to establish NONLINEAR OPTOGENETICS as an all-optical methodology in neuroscience, not only for stimulation of neural activity, but also for the detection of the response. More specifically we aim to investigate the possibility to read out the neuronal electrical activity by means of second harmonic generation (SHG) imaging of membrane potentials using opsins as SHG probes. This capability will be combined with cellular stimulation by two-photon opsin activation in order to achieve full bi-directional cellular addressability.

Keywords:Optovectoren, Non-lineaire optica, Uitlezing, Optogenetica, Stimulatie

Disciplines:Classical physics, Elementary particle and high energy physics, Other physical sciences