The annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), often
referred to simply as "Neuro", is arguably the premier academic
meeting of its kind in the world for all things related to the
science of the brain. It provides a forum for researchers to
present and discuss their latest work. In addition it hosts
an enormous trade show exhibition with a wide range of products
from laboratory consumables to complex systems for imaging the
brain.
This year's show was held in Washington D.C. in mid November and
attracted a grand total of 32,000 attendees.
Light plays a key role in the study of the brain. Microscopy
techniques can image deep into living samples or break the
classical optical resolution limit (so called super-resolution) to
give information on the finest details of the structures of the
brain. Light and neuroscience mix in the exciting field of
optogenetics (Nature's method of the year 2010). This was evident
in the trade show with several microscope vendors displaying their
products.
The laser plays a major part in many of these microscope
products as the "engine" that, for example, generates the
fluorescence that in turn generates the image. One specific
technique called multiphoton excitation (MPE) microscopy enables
images of slices of the brain to be made without the need to
physically slice the brain tissue. This technique requires
lasers that produce a train of short pulses of light - a technique
known as mode locking. These short pulses only interact with the
tissue in small volumes at the focal region of the microscope and
so limit damage to the living sample. This allows multiple optical
slices to made and and then combined to create a 3-dimentional
picture of the structures.
The number of microscope vendors offering such systems has
certainly increased in recent years and more than ten vendors were
offering such systems this year, double the number of only a few
years ago.
The Sprite laser from M Squared produces the short intense
pulses of light used for this technique.
Next years show is in New Orleans.