Photonic Systems Brown Bag Seminar Series

Thursday, November 9, 2006

11:45  am, RLE Haus  Conf. room 36-428

"Femtosecond laser nanosurgery for in-vivo study of neural regeneration and degeneration"

Mehmet Fatih Yanik

We will introduce femtosecond laser nanosurgery as a precise tool to perform sub-micron operations in live organisms, and show study of neural processes in C. elegans, a tiny invertebrate model organism with only 302 neurons.  By cutting nano-scale nerve connections inside C. elegans, we can disable the neural feedback loops that control worm's backward motion, and stop the whole animal from moving backwards.  This delicate femtosecond axotomy keeps the surrounding of the severed axons un-damaged so that the axons can regrow back, and the worms can move backwards again.  These results, for the first time, allowed observation of nerve regeneration in such a tiny organism with a simple nervous system . We will also report an interesting type of nerve regeneration that salvages the severed parts of neurons from degeneration.   The ability to perform precise in-vivo nano-surgery in such organisms provides tremendous research potential for rapid screening of drugs and discovery of new biomolecules affecting regeneration and degeneration. It can further allow deciphering of complex neural connectivitiy and function in complex neural networks.