Holographically generated structured illumination for cell stimulation in optogenetics

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

In Optogenetics, cells, e.g. neurons or cardiac cells, are genetically altered to produce for example the lightsensitive protein Channelrhodopsin-2. Illuminating these cells induces action potentials or contractions and therefore allows to control electrical activity. Thus, light-induced cell stimulation can be used to gain insight to various biological processes. Many optogenetics studies, however, use only full field illumination and thus gain no local information about their specimen. But using modern spatial light modulators (SLM) in conjunction with computer-generated holograms (CGH), cells may be stimulated locally, thus enabling the research of the foundations of cell networks and cell communications. In our contribution, we present a digital holographic system for the patterned, spatially resolved stimulation of cell networks. We employ a fast ferroelectric liquid crystal on silicon SLM to display CGH at up to 1.7 kHz. With an effective working distance of 33 mm, we achieve a focus of 10 μm at a positioning accuracy of the individual foci of about 8 μm. We utilized our setup for the optogenetic stimulation of clusters of cardiac cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells and were able to observe contractions correlated to both temporal frequency and spatial power distribution of the light incident on the cell clusters.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDigital Optical Technologies 2017
EditorsH. Paul Urbach, Bernard C. Kress, Wolfgang Osten
PublisherSPIE - The international society for optics and photonics
ISBN (electronic)9781510611153
Publication statusPublished - 2017
Peer-reviewedYes

Conference

TitleDigital Optical Technologies 2017
Duration26 - 28 June 2017
CityMunich
CountryGermany

Keywords