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Revealing functional mechanisms of synaptic transmission by high-pressure freezing

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Speakers

frederick

Frédéric Leroux

Advanced workflow specialist, Leica Microsystems

Frédéric Leroux completed his Master degree in Biology in 2007 at the University of Ghent where he gained experience in biological EM sample preparation. In 2008, he moved to the physics department at the University of Antwerp where he obtained his PhD in 2012. At the EMAT research group he specialized in advanced electron microscopy of composite materials and polymers. In 2016, he joined Leica Microsystems as Application Specialist Nanotechnology. He thereby uses his multidisciplinary background and broad microscopy experience to improve EM sample preparation of a variety of materials (polymers, composites, biological and industrial materials).

Speaker Bio
Carolina

Dr. Carolina Borges-Merjane

Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Professor Peter Jonas at the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria

Dr. Carolina Borges-Merjane was born in Brazil and studied Biochemistry and Cell Biology at the University of California San Diego (U.S.A.). After obtaining her Bachelor of Science, she joined the lab of Laurence Trussell at the Vollum Institute and Oregon Health & Science University (U.S.A) for her PhD thesis. For her dissertation, she studied glutamatergic synaptic transmission from mossy fiber terminals to unipolar brush cells of the cerebellum and dorsal cochlear nucleus, with electrophysiology and confocal microscopy. After finishing her PhD in 2015, she joined the lab of Professor Peter Jonas at the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria, where she was a Marie-Curie Individual Fellow, EMBO Long-Term Fellow and FWF Elise Richter Fellow. She is using electrophysiology and electron microscopy with optogenetics, correlating function and structure, to study synaptic transmission properties under basal and plasticity states, at the hippocampal mossy fiber to CA3 pyramidal neuron synapse.

Speaker Bio
Olena-Kim

Olena Kim

PhD Student in the lab of Professor Peter Jonas at the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria

Olena Kim was born in Ukraine where she obtained Masters degree in Biophysics.  In 2015, she moved to Austria to start her Doctoral studies at the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria. There she joined the lab of Professor Peter Jonas, which investigates the mechanisms of synaptic communication in hippocampal microcircuits. Her PhD project is about understanding the relation between the function and structure of synapses during neural activity. For this, she is using high pressure freezing coupled to optogenetic stimulation of organotypic slice cultures and acute slices, followed by freeze substitution, serial sectioning and transmission electron microscopy.

Speaker Bio

How structural and functional properties of synapses relate to each other is a fundamental question in neuroscience. Electrophysiology has elucidated mechanisms of synaptic transmission, while electron microscopy (EM) has provided insights into the morphological properties of synapses.

In this webinar, you will learn about:

  • Preparing brain tissue (acute slices and organotypic slice cultures) as a specimen for high-pressure freezing.
  • Strategies to optimize the freezing quality of brain tissue.
  • Strategies to optimize light-stimulation of brain tissue for high-pressure freezing.
  • Optimized freeze-substitution for brain tissue preparations after light-stimulation.
  • Possible future applications of brain tissue as a specimen for high-pressure freezing with light-stimulation.

You will get a detailed introduction to how optogenetic stimulation is applied in the EM ICE. Furthermore, Dr. Carolina Borges-Merjane and PhD candidate Olena Kim from the laboratory of Professor Peter Jonas at the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria talk about applying this technology on intact networks in acute brain slices and organotypic brain slice cultures from mice.

Join our webinar to learn more about the potential of functional EM with acute slices and slice cultures to reveal structural and functional mechanisms of synaptic transmission.

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[Leica Microsystems] Webinar October 15 2020 Revealing functional mechanisms

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