An open-source miniature two-photon microscope for large-scale calcium imaging in freely moving mice
Overview
Due to the unsuitability of benchtop imaging for tasks that require unrestrained movement, investigators have tried, for almost two decades, to develop miniature 2P microscopes-2P miniscopes–that can be carried on the head of freely moving animals. In this talk, I would first briefly review the development history of this technique, and then report our latest progress on developing the new generation of 2P miniscopes, MINI2P, that overcomes the limits of previous versions by both meeting requirements for fatigue-free exploratory behavior during extended recording periods and satisfying demands for further increasing the cell yield by an order of magnitude, to thousands of neurons. The performance and reliability of MINI2P are validated by recordings of spatially tuned neurons in three brain regions and in three behavioral assays. All information about MINI2P is open access, with instruction videos, code, and manuals on public repositories, and workshops will be organized to help new users getting started. MINI2P permits large-scale and high-resolution calcium imaging in freely-moving mice, and opens the door to investigating brain functions during unconstrained natural behaviors.
Speaker
Weijian Zong holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Peking University. He obtained his PhD in 2017, focusing on developing imaging technologies for neuroscience. He is currently a researcher in the Moser group at Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience. In the past few years, He led the development of three versions of miniature 2P microscopes (i.e. 2P miniscope) to record neuronal activity in freely-moving rodents (Zong et al, Nature Methods 2017; Nature Methods 2021; and Cell 2022). Besides the miniature 2P microscopes, He also developed a series of other advanced fluorescence imaging tools across broad topics. And Dr. Zong’s current research is developing an all-optical approach for characterizing functional connectivity in the medial entorhinal cortex.
Dr. Zong holds 6 invention patents in optical and imaging. His work on developing the new generation of miniature two-photon microscopes was selected as China’s top 10 scientific achievements in 2017. Dr. Zong received Shitsan Pai Award for Young Biophysicists Award in 2017 and became a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship in 2019.
Related Publications
Zong, W., Obenhaus, H. A., Skytøen, E. R., Eneqvist, H., Jong, N. L. de, Vale, R., Jorge, M. R., Moser, M.-B., & Moser, E. I. (2022). Large-scale two-photon calcium imaging in freely moving mice. Cell, 185(7), 1240-1256.e30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.02.017
Repositories
Moser Group - Mini2P - Website
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