Post-docs and students

Details: Simon Labrecque, PhD Student

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Phone: (418) 663-5747 - Ext. 4712

Location: CRULRG
2601 Chemin de la Canardière
Beauport - QC - G1J 2G3
Website: www.greenspine.ca

Research : Imaging Synaptic Receptors Diffusion using Quantum Dots
(Co-advisors: Paul De Koninck - Réal Vallée)

In this neurophotonics project we are currently developing a technique of single particle tracking to observe the motion and recruitment of glutamatergic receptors at synapses of living neurons. Cellular and molecular imaging techniques with high spatial and temporal resolution allow us to measure the diffusion of the receptors in real time. To detect membrane receptors, we use functionalized quantum dots as fluorescent probes. Thanks to their remarkable optical properties (high intensity, resistance to photobleaching, blinking and narrow emission spectra), quantum dots allow the imaging of one neuroreceptor with a nanometric resolution and over a long time period, yet unequaled. By combining quantum dots, epifluorescence microscopy and an ultrafast CCD camera with various neuronal culture methods, we study the remodeling of the synaptic connections, which operates, in part, via the dynamic accumulation of post-synaptic receptors.

Fig. (A) Images extracted from a movie (sampling rate = 30 images/sec).
The red dots are quantum dots (QD) attached via a specific antibody to AMPA receptor subunit GluR2; the green dots (Mitotracker green FM) reveal synaptic regions via the staining of mitochondria, enriched pre-synaptically.
Scale bar, 4 µm.

Fig. (B) Trajectory of the quantum dot, tracked and analyzed using Metamorph 6.0 and graphed using Matlab.