Post-Doctoral Fellowships
Amit Mehta, Ph.D.
Stanford University
Mentor: Mark Schnitzer, Ph.D.
"Minimally invasive in vivo imagine of hippocampal neurons"
3-year Award: $153,000
The Rett Syndrome Research Foundation Fellow of the Life Science Research Foundation
Lay Progress Report (August, 2004)
At the beginning of this year, my colleagues and I moved from Lucent Bell Laboratories to the Clark Center at Stanford University. We have since reassembled our instruments, one-photon and two-photon fluorescence microscopes that can be fitted with micro-optic probes.
As of the 2003 RSRF meeting, I had obtained images deep within live mammals. Brain tissue movement due to respiration and circulation limited the exposure times, preventing longer exposures due to blurring. To address this, I designed and constructed a feed-forward device which uses low-coherence interferometry to detect fine movements of the brain surface. This information will be used to move a macroscopic objective lens such as to keep a constant brain section in focus although the tissue continues to move. This project is now in its late stages of testing.
In parallel with instrumentation development, I have been working towards imaging studies of neuronal activity. Such studies require activity-sensitive fluorescent probes and electrophysiological measurements of individual cells. In order to integrate these approaches with our imaging technology, I have worked in parallel on two tracks. First, I have become proficient with the use of sharp microelectrodes to record single-unit activity in the cerebellum. To further hone this expertise and to become proficient in patch electrode recordings, I will be spending several weeks in the lab of my collaborator, Nigel Emptage, at Oxford University. Second, I have worked towards use of pressure injections of Calcium-sensitive dyes into Cerebellar neurons. To date, we have imaged small populations of putative granule cells using two-photon microscopy.
Amit Mehta, Ph.D.Stanford University
Mentor: Mark Schnitzer, Ph.D.
"Minimally invasive in vivo imagine of hippocampal neurons"
3-year Award: $153,000
The Rett Syndrome Research Foundation Fellow of the Life Science Research Foundation
Lay Progress Report (August, 2004)
At the beginning of this year, my colleagues and I moved from Lucent Bell Laboratories to the Clark Center at Stanford University. We have since reassembled our instruments, one-photon and two-photon fluorescence microscopes that can be fitted with micro-optic probes.
As of the 2003 RSRF meeting, I had obtained images deep within live mammals. Brain tissue movement due to respiration and circulation limited the exposure times, preventing longer exposures due to blurring. To address this, I designed and constructed a feed-forward device which uses low-coherence interferometry to detect fine movements of the brain surface. This information will be used to move a macroscopic objective lens such as to keep a constant brain section in focus although the tissue continues to move. This project is now in its late stages of testing.
In parallel with instrumentation development, I have been working towards imaging studies of neuronal activity. Such studies require activity-sensitive fluorescent probes and electrophysiological measurements of individual cells. In order to integrate these approaches with our imaging technology, I have worked in parallel on two tracks. First, I have become proficient with the use of sharp microelectrodes to record single-unit activity in the cerebellum. To further hone this expertise and to become proficient in patch electrode recordings, I will be spending several weeks in the lab of my collaborator, Nigel Emptage, at Oxford University. Second, I have worked towards use of pressure injections of Calcium-sensitive dyes into Cerebellar neurons. To date, we have imaged small populations of putative granule cells using two-photon microscopy.