BRAIN EAGER: A Nanophotonic Platform for Multisite Optical Activation in the Brain

BRAIN EAGER：用于大脑中多位点光学激活的纳米光子平台

• 批准号: 1611090
• 负责人: Michal Lipson
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: Columbia University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-11-15 至 2019-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1611090&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: BRAIN; EAGER; Nanophotonic; Platform; Multisite

A technology that could provide a path towards the holy grail of systems neuroscience - gain a level of understanding about the dynamics of neural circuits - is proposed. The technology is based on nano photonics - optical elements that are nanometer in size and can be massively integrated into small chips that could then be inserted into the animal brain. This platform would enable light to be delivered to thousands of different locations in the brain and would enable stimulation of neurons with arbitrary dynamical patterns. This proposed approach is expected to provide a critical stepping stone towards one of the greatest challenges facing science today - the understanding how the brain works. It will not only enable a new class of experiments to advance basic biological knowledge but could eventually contribute to an understanding of neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. Optical stimulation and silencing of neural activity is a powerful technique for elucidating the structure and function of neural circuitry, however in most in vivo optogenetic experiments, light is delivered into the brain through a single optical fiber limiting illumination to a large, fixed volume of the brain. A novel nanophotonic platform is proposed to allow massively parallel, multi-site stimulation through a single waveguide. Recent advances in nanophotonics enable the proposed optical probe platform which routes input light to an arbitrary excitation spot. The proposed platform is designed to be compatible with standard silicon probes for electrophysiological recordings. The proposed platform is based on nanowaveguides that consist of Silicon Nitride (SiN) wires with ~0.5 micrometers in diameter embedded in SiO2, that just like fibers, are transparent to light of wavelengths from the UV down to the mid-IR, and can be centimeters long. When compared to fibers, however, they are much smaller and enable light to be emitted from the nano-waveguides forming multiple beams at arbitrary locations. A first-generation probe will be fabricated, tested and then integrated with a state of art electrical probe for neural validation. This integrated device will then be used in mouse cortex to demonstrate the ability of waveguides to provide sufficient light for ChR2 activation and selective activation across cortical layers.

提出了一种可以为系统神经科学的神圣圣杯提供道路的技术 - 对神经回路动态的了解水平。 该技术基于纳米光子学 - 光学元件的大小是纳米表的，并且可以大量整合到小芯片中，然后可以将其插入动物大脑中。 该平台将使光线能够传递到大脑中数千个不同位置，并能够刺激具有任意动力学模式的神经元。预计这种拟议的方法将为当今科学面临的最大挑战之一提供一块关键的垫脚石 - 了解大脑的运作方式。它不仅可以使新的实验能够提高基本的生物学知识，而且最终可能有助于理解神经系统和神经精神疾病。神经活动的光学刺激和沉默是阐明神经回路的结构和功能的强大技术，但是在大多数体内光遗传学实验中，光线通过单个光纤限制照明将光传递到大脑中。 提出了一个新型的纳米光子平台，以通过单个波导允许大量​​平行，多站点刺激。纳米光子学的最新进展使提出的光学探针平台将输入光线输入任意激发点。该提出的平台旨在与用于电生理记录的标准硅探针兼容。 所提出的平台基于纳米层导管，由氮化硅（SIN）电线组成，直径约0.5微米，嵌入了SIO2中的直径，就像纤维一样，纤维像纤维一样，可透明从紫外线向下的波长向下到中IR，并且可以很长。但是，与纤维相比，它们要小得多，并且可以从纳米波导中发出光，从而在任意位置形成多个光束。 第一代探针将被制造，测试，然后与神经验证的最先进的电探针进行集成。然后，该集成的设备将在小鼠皮层中使用，以证明波导为CHR2激活提供足够光的能力，并在皮层层之间进行选择性激活。