Pr Fritjof Helmchen, Neurobiology and optics club guest

This Friday 12 June 2009 at 18:00 at the CRI, Professor Fritjof Helmchen will be among us.

Professor Fritjof Helmchen is performing his research at the border between Neuroscience and physics. He investigates the dynamics of neuronal activity in the intact brain of anesthetized and awake animals by using innovative optical mesurements methods that allow him to track the spiking activity of hundreds of neurons deep into the (almost) intact cortex of
mammals. He has also been developping miniaturized microscopes allowing him to explore optically the cortical activity in freely moving mice.
The prospect of exploring optically the cortex as a dynamical 3D structure is wildly regarded as key to a full understanding of this complex brain structure. Pr. Helmchen has been a pionner and published a series of milestone articles in this transdisciplinary field. A list of his key articles can be found at the end of this message.

Further description of his precise work can be found at :
http://www.hifo.uzh.ch/research/neurophysiology/helmchen/interest.html

His full Curriculum Vitae can be found at :
http://www.mpimf-heidelberg.mpg.de/departments/cellPhysiology/zpProjects/2pImaging/fritjofHelmchen/fritjofHelmchenCV/index.html

* Engelbrecht CE, Johnston RS, Seibel EJ, Helmchen F (2008) Ultra-compact
fiber-optic two-photon microscope for functional fluorescence imaging in
vivo. Optics Express, 16:5556-5564.
* Göbel W, Kampa BM, Helmchen F (2007) Imaging cellular network dynamics
in three dimensions using fast 3D laser scanning. Nature Methods 4: 73-79.
2006
* Helmchen F, and Denk W (2005) Deep tissue two-photon microscopy. Nature
Methods, 2(12): 932-940.
* Nimmerjahn A, Kirchhoff F, and Helmchen F (2005) Resting microglial
cells are highly dynamic surveillants of brain parenchyma in vivo.
Science, 308:1314-1318.
* Göbel W, Kerr NDJ, Nimmerjahn A, and Helmchen F (2004) Miniaturized
twp-photon microscope based on a flexible coherent fiber bundle and a
gradient-index lens objective. Optics Letters, 29(21) : 2521-2523.
* Nimmerjahn A, Kirchhoff F, Kerr NDJ, and Helmchen F (2004)
Sulforhodamine 101 as a specific marker of astroglia in the neocortex in
vivo. Nature Methods, 1(1) : 31-37.