Lin Tian, PhD
Professor and Vice Chair
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine
Director of AggieLight Initiative
University of California, Davis
Hosted by: Yao Chen, PhD
Virtual event
Zoom link: https://bit.ly/DoNSeminarSeries
To study neural circuitry, the action of one cell under the context of others, one would precisely measure and perturb specific neuronal populations and molecules in behaving animals who are specifically engaged in performing the computation or function of interest. The dataset of millions of neurons firing together underlying a behavior are required to develop and refine theories (hypotheses) explaining animal behavior in terms of brain physiology.
The focus of the lab is to develop novel genetically encoded indicators based on fluorescence proteins, especially focusing on direct and specific measurement of myriad input signals with needed spatial and temporal resolutions. In this talk, I will discuss our recent progress into developing and applying a new suite of genetically encoded indicators of neural activity. I will discuss the design, characterization and applications of these genetically encoded indicators for both in vivo imaging and drug discovery. In combination with calcium imaging and optogenetics, these sensors are well poised to permit direct functional analysis of how the spatiotemporal coding of neural input signaling mediates the plasticity and function of target circuits.