Recent progress in neural photo-stimulation now enables the development of systems that can use light patterns to excite spatio-temporally complex activity patterns both in vitro and in vivo. The first patterned photo-stimulation system (Shoham et al., Nat. Methods 2005) used a custom Acousto-Optical deflector to rapidly deflect a UV laser beam for uncaging glutamate. More recently, we have been using ChannelRhodopsinII expressing neurons, and are developing projector-based and high-rate digital-holographic pattern excitation systems.
Our central goal is to apply pattern-photo stimulation in an optical retinal neuroprosthetic. This device will bypass dead photo-receptors and provide an artificial sense of vision in degenerative diseases of the outer retina like Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) and Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). The core components of retinal neuro-prostheses are a method for optically exciting the neurons, a suitable micro-display, and components for capturing the visual input and for translating it into cellular stimulation patterns.
Selected publications:
- Reutsky-Gefen I, Golan L, Farah N, Schejter A, Tsur L, Brosh I & Shoham S, Holographic optogenetic stimulation of patterned neuronal activity for vision restoration. Nature Communications 4, 1509 (2013)
Media: Press release (Hebrew,English), Maariv (Hebrew), Radio Interview (Hebrew), OpenOptogenetics - Golan L, Reutsky I, Farah N & Shoham S, Design and characteristics of holographic neural photo-stimulation systems, Journal of Neural Engineering 6 066004, (2009)
- Shoham S*, O’Connor DH*, Sarkisov DV & Wang SSH, Rapid neurotransmitter uncaging in spatially defined patterns, Nature Methods 2(11), 837-843 (2005)
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