Prof. Yves De Koninck
Département de psychiatrie et neurosciences, Université Laval
 

New Tools to probe the brain with light

One of the greatest challenges of modern science is to decipher how the brain processes information. The “neural code" defines how information about the outside world is represented in the electrical activity of neurons, which connect to form circuits of staggering complexity (~10¹⁵ connections). These circuits have evolved to solve tasks far beyond the reach of today’s most powerful computers while using only the energy budget of a light bulb. To understand brain function, the true enabling technologies will be those that bridge cellular/molecular studies with whole body physiology and behaviour. Light-based tools represent the disruptive enabling technologies in this endeavour. Yet, harnessing their full potential remains limited by properties of light such as diffraction, absorption and scattering, which restrict resolution and depth of observation/intervention. Our ability to probe and control cellular and molecular events across the length and time scales that characterize brain function (from microns to meters; from milliseconds to years) thus hinges on the development of novel techniques to deliver light and measure events with extreme sensitivity and precision, in large volumes and over extended periods of time. I will describe a range of recent approaches we developed at the Neurophotonics centre in Quebec. Canada to undertake these challenges, spanning: improving optical resolution in microscopy techniques to developing volumetric strategies for high-throughput reconstruction of very large areas of the brain without compromise on resolution, to multimodal fibre optics-based tools with applications ranging from single cells optogenetics to accessing hard-to-reach areas of the nervous system.

Yves De Koninck is professor of Psychiatry & Neuroscience at Laval University, Scientific Director of the CERVO Brain Research Centre and Director of Research of the Quebec Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre. Former President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience, he holds a Canada Research Chair in Chronic pain and related brain disorders and is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada. He dedicated his career to understanding the mechanisms underlying chronic pain disorders. For this he received the Distinguished Career award from the Canadian Pain Society. He founded the Neurophotonics Centre (www.neurophotonics.ca), a unique infrastructure to support the development of novel technologies to probe and manipulate the brain. He now leads Sentinel North (www.sentinelnorth.ulaval.ca) a global initiative to harness the power of light for the benefit of health, environment and sustainable development in the North. He also leads the Canadian Brain Research Strategy (canadianbrain.ca). For his transdisciplinary efforts he received the Jacques-Rousseau Prize from Acfas, the Brockhouse Canada Prize and the Emily Gray Award from the Biophysical Society.