Science Frontiers Very Small - Elementary Particle Physics Very - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Science Frontiers

Very Small - Elementary Particle Physics Very Large - Astrophysics Very Complex - Condensed Matter, Brain

Sasha Sher Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics

Neuroproject

Modified from 1901 drawing S.R. y Cajal Institute Madrid, Spain

How does it work (what and how)? How does it develop? How can we fix it if it breaks?

Recording of simultaneous electrical activity

• f many neurons

1 mm

512 electrodes with 60 and 30 micron spacing UCSC AGH UST, Krakow, Poland Salk Institute

• U. of Strathclyde, Scotland

Technology

Select technology results so far

• Developed 512 electrode system for recording

activity of 100s of neurons in-vitro.

• Developed 512 electrode system for recording

and stimulating activity of 100s of neurons in-vitro.

• Developed 64-electrode wireless readout system

for recording neural activity in awake behaving rats.

• Developed 512 “bed of nails” electrode array for

recording activity inside neural tissue.

• Published results in IEEE proceedings, Journal of

Neural Engineering, Nature Neuroscience, etc.

Select scientific results so far

• Discovered and described new retinal pathways

responsible for motion and color processing

• Described how retina encodes information at a

neural population level

• Measured retinal functional properties at the

resolution of individual photoreceptors

• Results published in Nature, Nature

Neuroscience, Neuron, Journal of Neuroscience, Cell, Journal of Neuroscience, Entropy, PLoS One, etc.

Some of the current scientific work

• Investigation of retinal function and development in

mice (collaboration with David Feldheim, UCSC Biology)

• Adult retinal plasticity following laser photocoagulation
• Photovoltaic retinal prosthesis

computer display lens electrode array saline solution 1 cm retina

co

AGH USTK. Poland UCSC MCD Biology Applied Physics Ophthalmology

• Faculty: Alan Litke, Sasha Sher
• Two postdocs
• Four UCSC graduate students (Physics, Biology,

Electrical Engineering, Environmental Toxicology)

• Four Undergraduates (Physics, Applied Math,

Biology)

• Two High School students
• SCIPP technical stuff: Sergei Kachiguine, Forest

Martinez-McKinney.

Institute of Photonics

Funding: National Science Foundation, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Pew Charitable Trusts, National Eye Institute / National Institutes of Health, UCSC.