Post-docs and students Post-docs and students
Email:
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Phone: (514) 398-2567
Location: McGill University
Montréal - QC - H3A 2T6
Supervisors: Prof. Peter Grutter, Researcher Margaret Magdesian
Course: Honours Research Thesis
Lecture 8 of Nanoscience class: Atomic Force Microscopy. McGill University, Montreal. November 2011.
Research: Using Atomic Force Microscopy to Evaluate Neurodegeneration in Response to a Mechanical Injury.
Description of project: The purpose of this research is to characterize the process of neurodegeneration using Atomic Force Microscopy and Calcium Imaging. Using a bead attached to an AFM cantilever, neurons grown in microfluidic chambers are compressed with gradual forces and their response in terms of their internal calcium concentration is measured. Calcium release is one of the first sign of neural stress. The main advantage of this technique is that the neural response can be imaged live and during a gradual compression of the axon whereas live neurons are difficult to access and observe. The specific goals of this project are to evaluate the possible correlations between the changes in calcium concentrations, the time after injury, and the distance between the site of injury and the site of calcium increase.
Figure 1: The AFM produces high-resolution images of a sample's surface by scanning it with a sharp tip, called the cantilever. As the cantilever strikes the features in the sample's surface, it changes in height by an amount ΔZ. A laser beam echoes these responses by reflecting off the tip of the cantilever and entering a photodetector. In the case of our experiment, an accurate measurement of the force induced on the axon is possible by recording the deflection of the cantilever. Source: Walter Reisner.
Figure 2: Captured by CCD camera, this image of a neuron before injury shows the cantilever and a typical compression area by the bead. The orange box delimits an area of interest where calcium spots form at different times after the compression.