2011-06-01
Martin Lundblad has just received a one-year 175.000 SEK grant from Segerfalksstiftelsen to develop a new technology that will measure signaling pathways in the brain. The money will go towards acquiring new laser equipment to be used for optogenetics, a new laser method that stimulates and reads the actions of specific nerve cells.
The goal is to merge this new method with an electronic measuring technique, amperometry, that Martin Lundblad has been using extensively in his lab. The optogenetic laser technology offers acute precision in which nerve cells you choose to stimulate and allows scientists to follow the circuits of certain neurotransmitters through signaling pathways in the brain.
- This method is very hot right now and it enables us to perform experiments that have been impossible with existing techniques. I believe I will be the first person to connect the optogenetic method with amperometry in my upcoming experiments, says Martin Lundblad from his laboratory.
When the two technologies have been successfully merged Martin Lundblad will use them in a series of studies. The first study will be focused on how alpha-synuclein, a protein that is strongly indicated as a key factor in the pathology of Parkinson’s disease, alters dopamine neurotransmission. In the future this combination of techniques will also be used to monitor neurotransmission in conditions such as L-DOPA induced dyskinesia. In these studies the full potential of the technique to strictly separate different neural pathways and to study how they interact will be taken advantage of.
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Last modified: 2011-06-01
