MEADOWLARK OPTICS, INC. — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase II: 101

Description

Project Summary Microscopy with spatial light modulatorsSLMsenables use of optical techniques to simultaneously monitor and manipulate the activity of neuronal ensemblesin vitro and in vivoAs a result of successful worldwide research in this fieldsuppliers of commercial two photon microscopes feel there is extensive product potentialAs suchthree commercial microscope suppliers have licensed patents to existing IP filed by Columbia University regarding use of photostimulation and adaptive optics in microscopyThe Meadowlark OpticsMLOSLM is a key component in these commercial microscopes used to create the volume of foci forDscan lessmulti siteprogrammable excitationHoweverD photoactivation with a traditional imaging system leaves an inability to monitor the response of neural circuits to photoactivationDrJi demonstrated that the MLO SLM used in her Bessel focus Scanning TechnologyBESTenables imaging overx xmmwith the depth of imaging limited by response timeHzand resolutionxof the SLMDevelopment of a high resolutionhigh speed will extend the depth of imaging tommIn the proposed researchMLO will commercialize the BEST moduleas well as an axial focus translationAFTmodule for custom microscopes to reduce hurdles in adoption of volumetric imagingMLO will present the optical design and specifications of the volumetric imaging solution to commercial microscope suppliers as well as provide commercial microscope suppliers with a second generation SLM for photoactivation that matches the field of view that the SLM can excite to the field of view and resolution of commercial microscopesBeyond neurosciencethe SLM can be sold as a stand alone product for researchers addressing needs of a wide range of applications Project Narrative We propose to commercialize the BEST module and AFT module to provide researchers and commercial microscope suppliers with a solution for high speed volumetric calcium imaging over a volume ofmmThis advancement necessitates development of axpixel SLMwith a response time ofkHzThe proposed SLM can also be used for photoactivationexpanding the volume of excitation and the temporal dynamics of circuit activationThe combination will offer neuroscientists a unique toolbox to simultaneously monitor and manipulate activity of neuronal ensembles in vitro and in vivo