Assembly and Use of a Microfluidic Synapse Chamber for Visualizing Synapse-to-Nucleus Signaling (2013)

Undergraduate: Asif Khan

Faculty Advisor: Anne Taylor
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Here we demonstrate the use of a microfluidic synapse chamber that allows visualization and manipulation of synapses, presynaptic somata, and post synaptic somata independently and with high spatial and temporal resolution. This technique allows as many as a hundred aligned dendrites to be locally perfused simultaneously and with precise temporal and spatial control¿capabilities that are not possible using other methods of local perfusion. Applications for the synapse chamber include the investigation of local dendritic events (e.g. local translation, calcium activity) and signaling from the synapse to the nucleus. The goal of this work is to demonstrate how to assemble and culture neurons within the microfluidic synapse chamber, and present a proof-of-principle experiment by perfusing neurotransmitter, glutamate, at distal synapses and use calcium indicator dye, Fluo-4, to show calcium wave propagation from distal dendrites to the nucleus.