Event

The urgency to probe biological dynamics is impeded by a major challenge: the large dynamic range of biological processes—interactions of molecules within milliseconds can lead to changes across the whole-organism over days to years. It calls for measurements with both high spatiotemporal resolution and large-scale long-term coverage. However, high resolution measurement often requires frequent and invasive sampling, which results in limited spatiotemporal coverage. In this seminar, I will present two independent yet complementary approaches to tackle this challenge. First, I will introduce syringe-injectable mesh electronics (http://meshelectronics.org) for seamlessly merging electronics with mammalian nervous systems. Gliosis-free and interpenetrated brain-electronics interface enables stable recording and stimulation from the same neurons and neural circuits over a year. Second, I will describe a novel multimodal optical scope with adaptive imaging correction (MOSAIC, https://www.aicjanelia.org/mosaic) to observe subcellular dynamics inside multicellular organisms. I will demonstrate in vivo imaging of various model organisms, including single molecule tracking in embryoid bodies, axonal targeting in Drosophila, cancer metastasis and embryogenesis in Caenorhabditis elegans and zebrafish, as well as live mouse brain imaging. Both the electrical and optical approaches opened new windows to probe dynamics in biology with minimum perturbation and expanded spatiotemporal ranges.