All-optical assay to study biological neural networks
Abstract
We introduce a novel all-optical assay for functional studies of biological neural networks in vitro. We created a novel optogenetics construct named OptoCaMP which is a combination of a channelrhodopsin variant (CheRiff) and a red genetically encoded calcium indicator (jRCamp1b). It enables simultaneous optical stimulation and recording from large population of neurons with single-cell readout. We also developed a spatio-temporal all-optical assay to simultaneously stimulate a sub-section of a neural network and record evoked calcium activity, in both stimulated and non-stimulated neurons, thus allowing the investigation of the spread of excitation through an interconnected network. Finally, we demonstrate the sensitivity of this assay to the change of neural network connectivity.
Citation
Afshar Saber , W , Gasparoli , F M , Dirks , M G , Gunn-Moore , F J & Antkowiak , M 2018 , ' All-optical assay to study biological neural networks ' , Frontiers in Neuroscience , vol. 12 , 451 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00451
Publication
Frontiers in Neuroscience
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1662-453XType
Journal article
Rights
© 2018 Afshar Saber, Gasparoli, Dirks, Gunn-Moore and Antkowiak. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Description
This work was supported by the Cunningham Trust Ph.D. Studentship, the RS MacDonald Charitable Trust Neurophotonics Grant and EPSRC programme Grant EP/P030017/1.Collections
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