Topic: Miniature Multiphoton Microscopy for Imaging the Brain in Freely-behaving Animals

Speaker: Prof. Heping CHENG

Time: 10:00-11:30 AM, 24 Feb. , 2025

Venue: Room 110, Lynn Library

Introduction:

• Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

• Professor, College of Future Technology, Peking University

• Director, National Biomedical Imaging Center, Peking University

• Chief Scientist, China Multimodality and Trans-scale Biomedical Imaging Facility

Long-term Research Focus:

Dedicated to advancing the fields of calcium signaling, mitochondrial biomedicine, and the independent innovation of cutting-edge biomedical instruments.

Major Academic Contributions:

• Discovered "Calcium Sparks," with the original paper being hailed as one of the ten most outstanding myocardial research papers in over 100 years.

• Discovered the "Mitoflash" phenomenon, elucidating its signaling roles in energy metabolism, learning and memory, and the biology of aging.

• Spearheaded the development of a 2.2-gram miniature two-photon microscope, enabling real-time observation of neuronal activity in freely moving mice and pioneering a new paradigm in brain science research.

• Leveraged high-speed, high-throughput imaging and machine learning technologies to decode the temporal coding mechanisms of SCN circadian neurons.

Awards and Recognitions:

• Awarded the "Research Achievement Award" from the International Society for Heart Research (2016).

• Awarded the "Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress" by the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation (2020).

• Awarded the Bei Shizhang Award (2023).

• Research achievements were selected as one of the "Top 10 Scientific Advances in 2017" of China and "Method of the Year 2018" by Nature Methods.

Abstract:

Recent advances in miniature multiphoton microscopy opened a new paradigm in brain research. In 2017, we developed a 2.2-gram miniature two-photon microscope, enabling the imaging of neuronal activity in freely behaving mice. The second-generation miniature two-photon microscope, introduced in 2021, achieved the functional imaging of nearly a thousand neurons across the three-dimensional space of the cortex. In 2023, we developed a 2.17-gram miniature three-photon microscope, acquiring for the first time the functional imaging of the entire cortical and hippocampal neurons in freely behaving mice. Based on these core technologies, we established the "Nanjing Brain Observatory" and initiated "Brain Exploration Projects”. More than 40 projects, covering topics such as cortical working memory, sleep, autism, depression, neuropharmacology, and neuronal regeneration, have been complete at this platform.