Centre for Neurotechnology seminar from Jerry Chen

Associate Professor of Biology, Boston University

Imaging the Mammalian Brain Across Space and Time with Multi-Foci Multi-Photon Microscopy

Abstract: The action potential has long been understood to be the fundamental bit of information in brain, but how these spikes encode representations of stimuli and drive behavior remains unclear. Large-scale neuronal recordings with cellular and spike-time resolution spanning multiple brain regions are needed to capture relevant network dynamics that can be sparse and distributed across the population.  The need to image the brain at cellular resolution across large areas of the brain and at higher temporal resolution pushes the boundaries of optical imaging.  I will discuss solutions that overcome these fundamental limits and their applications to study cortical function during learning and behavior.

Bio: Jerry Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Boston University.  He received his PhD from MIT working with Elly Nedivi, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Zurich working with Fritjof Helmchen.  He started his laboratory at Boston University in 2016 where his lab investigates cortical circuits underlying behavior.  As Associate Director of the Neurophotonics Center at Boston University, his lab also develops new optical tools for in vivo brain imaging. He is currently on sabbatical at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the UK as a Clare Hall Visiting Fellow through Cambridge University.

The seminar is in-person. No registration is required.