Research Areas

Neurobiology

The majority of research in our lab focuses around biological questions in the cognitive and visual areas of neuroscience. We explore the underlying basis of synaptic development using rodent (rat and mice) models. Development of the nervous system is a very inclusive process utilizing precise spatial and temporal release and detection of biological agents to achieve proper routing and connections of excitatory and inhibitory pathways. Much of the recent explosion of neuroscience research has come from the belief that we will be able to like the activities of the brain with the processes of the mind, renewed by more precise imaging techniques and a greater ability of manipulations at the molecular and cellular levels.

Microfluidics

Microfluidics is the science and technology of fluids in small (<100 um) diameter channels. There are a number of phenomena that dominate at the microscale, which change the way fluids interact when compared to the larger scales we are more familiar with. The first striking difference is that flow is laminar, in other words turbulence does not occur. This means that when two fluid streams come together, there are no eddies or vortices to cause large scale mixing, the two streams will flow side-by-side with mixing occurring only through diffusion at the interface of the two fluids.

This phenomena sets the stage for a large number of experimental paradigms, including;

1. Separations based on Brownian motion
2. High-precision capillary electrophoresis
3. Rapid exchange of environmental conditions (e.g. pharmacological, chemical, thermal)
4. Formation of stable gradients
5. In-situ fabrication of physical and 'virtual' structures

Our laboratory primarily uses the rapid exchange of environmental conditions and the formation of gradients in our studies of neurobiology. With these techniques, we are able to define and quickly change the chemical and pharmacological environment a cell or a region of the culture might be seeing. We use pharmacological gradients to coax neurons into growing their processing in specific directions.

Multi-Electrode Arrays

Electrodes are an extremely useful way to interact with the nervous system. Multi-Electrode Arrays (MEAs) are arrays of electrodes fabricated onto a planar substrate for electrical interaction with primary cultures of cortical neurons. The electrode array allows for a grid of points from which we can record or stimulate nearby electrodes, allowing a method of observing the activity states of the neurons as well as a way to input our own activity. As the neurons develop, connections are made with their neighbors and pathways are formed, MEAs give us a window into the states of this development. Using the array for stimulation allows us to see how activity in specific regions at specific times affects the activity patterns of the neuronal network. In this way we can not only observe the neuronal network, but also affect it.

Microscale System Integration and Control

While the above research areas are capable of generating significant data on their own, another focus of our research is to combine these techniques. An experimental setup capable of observing and controlling the electrical environment of the neuronal culture as well as tempospatially controlling the chemical and pharmacological environment will yield an extremely powerful platform from which to study neurobiology. Our current focus is on development of a microfluidic device with an integrated multi-electrode array within the culture chamber.