Detail Project and Funding

Abstract: Imaging technologies have driven outstanding progress in the comprehension of the workings of biological systems. However, the main shortcoming of available technologies is their incapability of imaging multiple fast phenomena while controlling, with adequate spatio-temporal resolution, the biological determinants involved. Overcoming these limitations would significantly improve both basic biological research and the development of more effective diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. In this project, we will develop an innovative optical approach to simultaneously probe and control electrical activity across the whole heart. Ultrafast detector will be used to optical map the electrical activity of an isolated rat heart while deflectors will be used to rapidly scan laser beams across the sample to control membrane electrical activity by activating light- gated ion channels. Local voltage perturbations will be induced, simulating arrhythmogenic events, and their impact on physiological cell activity will be explored. The development of this optical methodology will provide fundamental insights in cardiac disease, boosting new therapeutic strategies, and, more generally, will represent a whole new approach for the investigation of the physiology of the heart.

INO’s Experiments/Theoretical Study correlated:
Optical dissection of cardiac electrophysiology