All-optical electrophysiology: from mice to microbes

Speaker:

Prof. Adam E. Cohen

Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard University

Title:
All-optical electrophysiology: from mice to microbes

Abstract:

Every lipid bilayer is an electrical insulator, and charge imbalances between its faces can lead to a membrane voltage. Voltage modulates many transmembrane transport processes, and membrane voltage is dynamically regulated in most cell types: most famously in neurons and cardiac cells, but also in bacteria, plants, and intracellular organelles. Membrane voltage is very hard to measure because it is not directly visible. We have developed fluorescent protein reporters of membrane potential, and associated instrumentation for high-speed voltage imaging. By combining voltage imaging with optogenetic actuation, we developed a platform for all-optical electrophysiology. The talk will describe all-optical electrophysiology measurements in awake, behaving mice; in human stem cell-derived disease models; in cardiac cells, and in bacteria.