"Sensing, Controlling and Integrating Brain Processes with Biological Light"

Abstract:

Biological light, bioluminescence, is light emission by a protein (luciferase) oxidizing its substrate (luciferin). Combining light emitting with light sensing proteins enables a highly modular and versatile platform, BioLuminescent OptoGenetics (BL-OG). Bioluminescence from intact luciferases can activate light-sensing actuators from channelrhodopsins to transcription factors, effecting changes in cellular functions from membrane potential to transcription. Light emission from split luciferases can be made dependent on intracellular factors, such as calcium, allowing to integrate neural activity with changes in membrane potential and transcription. The combinations of light emitters and light sensors can vary in their molecular and cellular arrangement. They can be fused or co-expressed in the same cell or in different cells. If they are expressed in synaptically connected neurons, this Interluminescence functions as a real-time optical synapse. This BL-OG technology is being applied to the study of brain circuits and their corrective manipulation in pathological conditions.

Biography:

Ute Hochgeschwender graduated from the Free University in Berlin, Germany, with degrees in medicine (MD) and philosophy (MA).  She is a Professor at the College of Medicine at Central Michigan University, USA, where she heads the Bioluminescent Optogenetics Laboratory. Her group develops molecular tools that use biological light, bioluminescence, to activate light-sensing photoreceptors (ion moving opsins and non-ion moving photoswitches) and applies the developed tools for studying the relationship between neural circuit function and behavior and for exploring their potential for non-invasive treatment of neurological and psychiatric diseases. Our research is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, The W.M. Keck Foundation, and the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation.