Learn & Share: Neuroscience
The nervous system is a tightly regulated, highly complex network. Besides gaining knowledge of the single neuronal cell, the understanding of the network as a whole is of major importance to understand how billions of neurons perform their task in the brain, how changes on molecular level are connected with pathogenesis and how neuronal networks are capable of learning and memory. With the help of microscopic techniques scientists are encountering many exciting questions, whose answers they are putting together like pieces of a puzzle.
-
Laser Microdissection Publication List
This monthly updated reference list demonstrates the major application fields for laser microdissection in life science research.Read article -
Clap On, Clap Off. Protein On, Protein Off
Unlike genetic or pharmacological manipulation, light-controlled proteins respond immediately, can be temporally and spatially triggered, are reversible, and are specific to the protein of interest.…Read article -
Clarifying Tissue Clearing
Biological specimens are intrinsically three dimensional; however because of the obscuring effects of light scatter, imaging deep into a tissue volume is problematic. Although efforts to eliminate the…Read article -
Quantitative Analysis of PPT1 Interactome in Human Neuroblastoma Cells
Application example of HyVolution Super-Resolution - Mutations in the CLN1 gene that encodes Palmitoyl protein thioesterase 1 (PPT1) or CLN1, cause Infantile NCL (INCL, MIM#256730). PPT1 removes long…Read article -
Multiphoton Microscopy Publication List
Multiphoton Microscopy is an advanced technique for imaging thick samples. Applications range from the visualization of the complex architecture of the whole brain to the study of tumor development…Read article -
Botulinum Neurotoxin Type-A Enters a Non-Recycling Pool of Synaptic Vesicles
Neuronal communication relies on synaptic vesicles undergoing regulated exocytosis and recycling for multiple rounds of fusion. Whether all synaptic vesicles have identical protein content has been…Read article -
Clearing of Fixed Tissue: A Review from a Microscopist’s Perspective
Chemical clearing of fixed tissues is becoming a key instrument for the three-dimensional reconstruction of macroscopic tissue portions, including entire organs. Indeed, the growing interest in this…Read article -
Symmetric Synapse - Clathrin Coated Endocytosis Pit in the Postsynaptic Dendrite
Application Note for Leica EM ICE - WT hippocampal neurons were plated at a density of 80,000 cells/cm2 on 6 mm sapphire disks for 14 days. Sample were frozen using a high-pressure freezer (Leica EM…Read article -
Super-Resolution Mapping of Neuronal Circuitry With an Index-Optimized Clearing Agent
Super-resolution imaging deep inside tissues has been challenging, as it is extremely sensitive to light scattering and spherical aberrations. Here, we report an optimized optical clearing agent for…Read article -
Super-Resolution Microscopy of the Synaptic Active Zone
At the presynaptic active zone (AZ) a variety of specialized proteins are assembled to complex architectures, which set the basis for speed, precision and plasticity of synaptic transmission.…Read article -
Workflows & Protocols: Connecting Microscopy and Molecular Biology in Neuroscience
The main topic during this course was how to apply laser microdissection in neuroscience. Leica specialists demonstrated why laser microdissection is a suitable techniques for brain investigation as…Read article -
Switching Roles: The Functional Plasticity of Adult Tissue Stem Cells
Adult organisms have to adapt to survive, and the same is true for their tissues. Rates and types of cell production must be rapidly and reversibly adjusted to meet tissue demands in response to both…Read article -
Super-resolution Imaging of the Natural Killer Cell Immunological Synapse on a Glass-supported Planar Lipid Bilayer
The glass-supported planar lipid bilayer system has been utilized in a variety of disciplines. One of the most useful applications of this technique has been in the study of immunological synapse…Read article -
Axon Injury and Regeneration in the Adult Drosophila
Neural regeneration is a fascinating process with profound impact on human health, such that defining biological and genetic pathways is of interest. Here we describe an in vivo preparation for…Read article -
Identification of Molecular Pathways Facilitating Glioma Cell Invasion In Situ
Gliomas are mostly incurable secondary to their diffuse infiltrative nature. Thus, specific therapeutic targeting of invasive glioma cells is an attractive concept. As cells exit the tumor mass and…Read article -
JC Virus Inclusions in Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy: Scaffolding Promyelocytic Leukemia Nuclear Bodies Grow With Cell Cycle Transition Through an S-to-G2–Like State in Enlarging Oligodendrocyte Nuclei
In progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, JC virus–infected oligodendroglia display 2 distinct patterns of intranuclear viral inclusions: full inclusions in which progeny virions are present…Read article -
How to Choose the Right Confocal Microscope for Your Lab?
Confocal microscopy has come a very long way since its invention more than a half-century ago. Today, with novel technology driven by leading imaging companies, it has become the standard for…Read article -
Video Talk by Karl Deisseroth: Optogenetics
Optogenetics is a combination of genetics and optics to achieve a gain or loss of function of biochemical events such as action potentials in a particular neuron or tissue. Opsin genes encode proteins…Read article -
A New Probe for Super-Resolution Imaging of Membranes Elucidates Trafficking Pathways
The molecular composition of the organelles involved in membrane recycling is difficult to establish as a result of the absence of suitable labeling tools. We introduce in this paper a novel probe,…Read article -
Clearing Procedures for Deep Tissue Imaging
Multi-channel multiphoton microscopy with dedicated optics for CLARITY. Why clearing? Curiosity is human nature. And nothing attracts as much curiosity as the inside of living organisms. While in…Read article -
Correlated Optical and Isotopic Nanoscopy
The isotopic composition of different materials can be imaged by secondary ion mass spectrometry. In biology, this method is mainly used to study cellular metabolism and turnover, by pulsing the cells…Read article -
Single-Cell Phenotyping within Transparent Intact Tissue through Whole-Body Clearing
Understanding the structure-function relationships at cellular, circuit, and organ-wide scale requires 3D anatomical and phenotypical maps, currently unavailable for many organs across species. At the…Read article -
STED Microscopy of Living Cells – New Frontiers in Membrane and Neurobiology
Recent developments in fluorescence far-field microscopy such as STED microscopy have accomplished observation of the living cell with a spatial resolution far below the diffraction limit. Here, we…Read article -
Video: The Ascent – a Brief History of the Brain
This video features a few of the major scientists and findings that have contributed to modern neuroscience: The history of our knowledge of the brain, how technical and conceptual advances led to new…Read article -
Super-Resolution Microscopy Helped to Create the First 3D Model of a Synapse
A research team from Göttingen, led by Prof. Silvio O. Rizzoli, managed to determine the copy numbers and positions of all important building blocks of a synapse for the first time. This allowed them…Read article -
Interview with Dr. Yasushi Okada
Yasushi Okada, team leader at Riken Quantitative Biology Center in Osaka, Japan, investigates vesicular transport mechanisms in neuronal cells. As the size of transported vesicles is below 100 nm and…Read article -
Synaptic Vesicle Recycling: Steps and Principles
Synaptic vesicle recycling is one of the best‐studied cellular pathways. Many of the proteins involved are known, and their interactions are becoming increasingly clear. However, as for many other…Read article -
Capturing Cellular Dynamics with Millisecond Temporal Resolution
The combination of two powerful techniques: optogenetics and high-pressure freezing now makes it possible to visualize a dynamic cellular activity with temporal resolution of 5 milliseconds. By…Read article -
Imaging Pheromone Sensing in a Mouse Vomeronasal Acute Tissue Slice Preparation
In mice, the ability to detect pheromones is principally mediated by the vomeronasal organ (VNO). Here, an acute tissue slice preparation of VNO for performing calcium imaging is described. This…Read article -
The Morbus Parkinson Puzzle
A characteristic sign of M. Parkinson is the deterioration of dopaminergic neurons in the mid-brain, specifically in the substantia nigra (SN, black substance). Different causes and forms of this…Read article