Regensburg 2004 – scientific programme

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AKB: Biologische Physik

AKB 50: Poster Session "Biological Physics"

AKB 50.16: Poster

Friday, March 12, 2004, 10:30–13:00, B

Optical Control of Neuronal Growth — •Björn Stuhrmann, Josef Käs, Allen Ehrlicher, Michael Gögler, Daniel Koch, and Timo Betz — Lehrstuhl für die Physik weicher Materie, Universität Leipzig, Fakultät für Physik und Geowissenschaften, Linnéstr. 5, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany

The control of neuronal growth is an essential tool in neuroscience, cell biology, biophysics, biomedicine, and is particularly important for the formation of neural circuits in vitro, as well as nerve regeneration in vivo. We have shown experimentally that we can use weak optical forces to influence the motility of a growth cone by biasing the polymerization-driven intracellular machinery. In actively extending growth cones, a laser spot placed at specific areas of the nerve’s leading edge affects the following three potentially important elements of controlled neuronal network formation: the growth speed, the direction taken by a growth cone, and the splitting of a growth cone [Ehrlicher et al. No-dqGuiding neuronal growth with lightNo-dq PNAS (2002)]. We have also succeeded to establish transient cell-cell contacts between growth cones and cell bodies of other nerve cells. Our results open a new venue to control neuronal growth with a simple, noncontact technique with potential applications in the formation of neural networks and in understanding the cytoskeleton driven morphological changes in growth cones.