Olivier Dupont-Therrien

EMAIL:

POSITION:

Ph.D. student in Biophotonics, Université Laval (http://www.ulaval.ca)

ACADEMIA:

M.Sc. in Physics, Université Laval, Université Laval (http://www.ulaval.ca/)

ADVISORS:

Paul De Koninck (http://www.greenspine.ca)

Daniel Côté (http://dcclab.ca)

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Glutamate uncaging, calcium imaging

Research Summary

Coupling synaptic stimulation and rapid calcium imaging

Understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of synaptic transmissions is essential for the comprehension of the brain. Neurons receive information from thousands of synaptic connections which must be integrated and relayed to other neurons. Little is known about these integration mechanisms, partly because of the technical difficulties involved in measuring neuronal activity on small structures such as dendrites and spines.

The main goal of this project is the development of an all optical method for the comprehension of synaptic integration by dendrites. The measure of neuronal and synaptic activity will be made by intracellular calcium ion concentration imaging ([Ca2+]i), which is a direct reporter of electrical activity. To specifically control the spatiotemporal behaviour of synaptic activation, we will use a glutamate uncaging stimulation protocol. The specific aims of the project are:

1. Development of a system which will enable simultaneous glutamate uncaging stimulation coupled with multiphoton widefield [Ca2+]i imaging.
2. Analysis of the communication dynamics between spines, dendrites and the soma by the mean of the method discussed above.

Rat hippocampal neuron in culture. The dye is Alexa Fluor 594 and was inserted by patch-clamp (the electrode is the bright triangle in the bottom of the image). The image was taken by a homemade fluorescence microscope. Each spine (one is shown by the arrow) is a connection with another neuron.

Publications

Mathieu L. Viger, Ludovic S. Live, Olivier D. Therrien and Denis Boudreau Reduction of self-quenching in fluorescent silica-coated silver nanoparticles. Plasmonics (2008) vol. 3 (1) pp. 33-40 (http://www.springerlink.com/content/a8t713t8tw5061hx)