Emiliani Group: Wavefront-engineering microscopy

Francesca ANSELMI, Aurélien BEGUE, Dima BEILLARD, Vincent DE SARS, Valentina EMILIANI, Benoît FORGET, Philippe GIRARD, Marc GUILLON, Eirini PAPAGIAKOUMOU, Cathie VENTALON

The investigation of signal transmission in brain requires to reproduce/observe physiological events that occur on a wide range of spatiotemporal scales, from e.g. the localized brief (μs) transient associated with a single (sub micron) synaptic event to the complex arithmetic that dendrites use in integrating (μs-ms) multiple localized synaptic inputs (several micrometers apart).
Light microscopy is a fundamental tool in neuroscience offering a sensitive and non-invasive approach to probe and mimic such brain complexity.
The aim of this team is to develop a specific class of optical techniques based on spatiotemporal engineering of optical wave-fronts obtained by phase modulation solely. This approach has the advantage of minimizing power losses, permitting a quick adaptability of the excitation pattern to the experimental context and allowing a true 3D sculpting of the excitation volumes.

The team activity is organized in four research lines:

1. Spatiotemporal control of neuronal activity by holographic photoactivation patterns
2. Super resolution microscopy (STED) and scanning less microscopy
3. Microendoscopy for awake animal imaging and for deep imaging
4. Instrumentation

• Post-doc position available: Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (STED) for neuronal and glial cells imaging

• Dan Oron (Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel);
• Jesper Gluckstad (Department of Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, http://www.ppo.dk/) ;
• Paola Pedarzani (Department of Physiology, UCL, London, UK);
• Jack Feldman (Department of Neurobiology, UC Los Angeles);
• Ehud Isacoff (Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley);
• Jennifer Curtis (Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta);
• Cha Min Tang (University of Maryland, Medecine School);
  
  
• Phasics (Orsay, France, http://www.phasicscorp.com/).

• European Neuroscience Institute network (ENI-net) of Young Investigators (http://www.eni-net.org);
  
• Paris School of Neuroscience ENP (thematic research network for advanced studies RTRA) (http://www.paris-neuroscience.fr/enp);
• C'nano IdF (Region Ile de France Nanosciences network) (http://www.cnanoidf.org/).
  

• ESF and CNRS, through the EURYI (European Young Investigator) Award 2005 (http://www.esf.org);
• European Commission FP6 Specific Targeted Project "PHOTOLYSIS" LSHM-CT-2007-037765;
• FRM (Fondation pour le Recherche Médicale), through the program: "subvention pour l’implantation d’une nouvelle équipe";
• ENP (Paris School of Neuroscience) (http://www.paris-neuroscience.fr/enp), through the program: "collaborative projects";
• FRM (Fondation pour le Recherche Médicale), through the program: "FRM Equipe 2010";
• HFSP (Human Frontier Science Program);
• C'nano IdF (Region Ile de France Nanosciences network) (http://www.cnanoidf.org/).