Chemical Society Seminar: Francois St-Pierre - Evolved fluorescent indicators to monitor neuronal voltage dynamics in vivo

Abstract:

A longstanding goal in neuroscience is to understand how spatiotemporal patterns of neuronal electrical activity underlie brain function, from sensory representations to decision-making. An emerging technology for monitoring electrical dynamics is voltage imaging using Genetically Encoded Voltage Indicators (GEVIs) — light-emitting protein indicators whose brightness is modulated by voltage. GEVIs are promising tools for monitoring voltage dynamics at high spatiotemporal resolution in genetically defined cell types. However, current indicators enable a narrow range of applications in vivo due to poor performance under two-photon microscopy, a method of choice for deep-tissue recording. Using a novel high-throughput screening platform, we developed JEDI-2P, an indicator that is faster, brighter, and more sensitive and photostable than its predecessors. We demonstrate that JEDI-2P can optically record the voltage dynamics of individual cortical neurons in awake behaving mice for more than 30 minutes using two-photon resonant scanning and random-access microscopy.

Bio:

François St-Pierre received a B.A. and M.A. in the Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, UK. He then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to work with Drew Endy, receiving a PhD in Computational and Systems Biology in 2009. He then moved to Stanford University and worked in the Laboratory of Michael Z. Lin as a postdoctoral fellow. He is now an Assistant Professor & McNair Scholar in the Department of Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine and in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Rice University. His research integrates synthetic biology, protein engineering, and high throughput imaging to advance neuroscience research.