Biophotonics

It has been known since 2002 that a highly focussed infrared beam can influence the rate and direction of neuronal growth. In the example shown here of an NG108 cell, the initial direction of the axon was towards the left (small arrow), and over the course of 30 minutes the axon was guided downwards towards the lower left of the image (large arrow) using a focussed 780 nm laser (white spot). This phenomenon also works with 1064 nm laser irradiation. We have demonstrated that this effect is not thermally mediated, but instead may be due to the photomechanical alignment of filopodia within the beam. Current work is ongoing to characterise the biochemistry of this event and to explore the use of different types of guiding beam profiles, such as line traps.

Key References

(If desired, all references and pdfs may be downloaded en masse in an Endnote formatted zip file)