Guest Editors
Guanxiao Qi
Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-10), Research Centre Juelich
Dr. Qi is a research fellow at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-10), Research Centre Juelich, Germany. He received his BSc and MSc degrees in physics from Southeast University, China, in 2002 and 2005, respectively. He obtained his doctoral degree (Dr. rer. nat.) summa cum laude in biology from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, in 2011. From 2011 to 2014, Dr. Qi pursued a postdoctoral research at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University and the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-2), Research Centre Juelich, Germany. Dr. Qi’s current research is unveiling the functional and structural properties of neuronal microcircuits in the rodent barrel cortex and the human medial temporal gyrus. The research methods he has used include paired (multiple) patch-clamp recordings in acute brain slices, immunostaining of biocytin-filled neurons, 3D digital reconstruction of neuronal morphology, immunofluorescent labeling of neurochemical markers with antibodies, pharmacological investigation of neuromodulation, computer simulation of neurons and synapses, etc.
Dirk Feldmeyer
RWTH Aachen University & Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-10), Research Centre Juelich, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics,
Dr. Feldmeyer is a W3 professor at the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University and a senior research fellow at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-10), Research Centre Juelich, Germany. He received his Diploma and PhD in biology from the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, in 1984 and 1987, respectively. From 1988 to 1995, Dr. Feldmeyer had been a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Cell Physiology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany and the Department of Pharmacology, University College London, UK. Dr. Feldmeyer served as an editor for the Journal of Physiology, European Journal of Physiology, and Frontiers Journals. He has been appointed a member in the Welcome Trust Peer College. Dr. Feldmeyer’s working group investigates the structural and functional aspects of synaptic transmission and its modulation at the level of neuronal networks, individual neurons, and neocortical synapses, both during development and in adulthood. For this, it uses the somatosensory cortex of rodents, in particular the barrel field, as a model. The team studies the individual neuronal circuits within a cortical column in detail by examining slices of the brain. Recently, acute human brain slices derived from neurosurgical resection for epilepsy treatment or tumor removal, have also been examined. The long-term objective is to clarify and model the structural and functional organization of neurons and their synaptic connections in a cortical column.
Collection Overview
Neurons communicate with each other through synapses. Synapses are specialized junctions that transmit electrical signals between neurons either directly, via gap junctions, or indirectly, using chemical neurotransmitters. In both cases, the connection strength is often plastic, i.e. can be modulated dynamically on a wide range of time scales from milliseconds (short-term) to minutes and hours (long-term). Thus, synaptic transmission and its plasticity are key for understanding the biological basis of neuronal computation, learning, and memory. In recent years, experimental studies using a wealth of powerful experimental techniques have greatly expanded our knowledge of synaptic structure and function.
This methods collection includes sophisticated approaches to study the synaptic structure, function and plasticity from different preparations and under different experimental conditions (in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo). The approaches may be purely anatomical, such as electron and light microscopy with nano- to micrometer resolution, functional, or a combination thereof, using different techniques such as patch-clamp recordings, biocytin labelling, Ca2+ imaging, optogenetics, tissue clearing, viral tracing, and many more. This methods collection provides a comprehensive description of state-of-the-art methods for synaptic research, and serves as a resource for junior scientists who plan to dive into this research field.
Articles
Registration of Calcium Transients in Mouse Neuromuscular Junction with High Temporal Resolution using Confocal Microscopy
0 Views
•
Cited by 2
•
2021
•
Nikita V. Zhilyakov1, Arsenii Y. Arkhipov1, Eduard F. Khaziev1,2, Marat A. Mukhamedyarov3, Dmitry V. Samigullin1,2
1Laboratory of Biophysics of Synaptic Processes, Kazan Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, FRC Kazan Scientific Center of RAS, 2Department of Radiophotonics and Microwave Technologies, Kazan National Research Technical University named after A.N. Tupolev, 3Department of Normal Physiology, Kazan State Medical University
Easy and Reproducible Low-Density Primary Culture using Frozen Stock of Embryonic Hippocampal Neurons
0 Views
•
2023
•
Noriko Koganezawa1, Reiko T. Roppongi2, Yuko Sekino3,4, Izuo Tsutsui3, Ayaka Higa5, Tomoaki Shirao1,5
1Department of Pharmacology, Graduate School of Medicine, Gunma University, 2Gunma University Initiative for Advanced Research, Gunma University, 3Department of Veterinary Pathophysiology and Animal Health, Graduate school of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 4Institute for Drug Discovery Innovation, 5AlzMed, Inc.
Preparing Retinal Organoid Samples for Transmission Electron Microscopy
0 Views
•
Cited by 1
•
2024
•
Abstracts
Simultaneous on- and off-site electrophysiological recordings of neurons in acute human cortical slices
Guanxiao Qi*1,
Danqing Yang1,
Aniella Bak2,
Daniel Delev3,
Henner Koch2,
Dirk Feldmeyer*4
1Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, INM-10, Reseach Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany,
2Department of Epileptology and Neurology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany,
3Department of Neurosurgery, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany,
4Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, INM-10, Reseach Centre Jülich, Jülich, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany; Jülich-Aachen Research Alliance-Brain, Translational Brain Medicine, Aachen, Germany