Innovative collaboration between biologists and physicists for brain research

Biologists and physicists from Utrecht University have joined forces to study the physical principles behind the generation and propagation of electric impulses in intact brain tissue. For this unique collaborative project, the researchers have received a FOM subsidy of more than 1.7 million Euros. Programme leader Kapitein is happy: “This is an excellent opportunity to elaborate recently developed concepts in the field of photonics and to apply them to a fundamental question about the brain: how are electric signals generated and distributed in brain tissue?”

One of today’s biggest scientific challenges is to understand how the brain controls our behaviour in neural networks containing billions of neurons. The project, called “NeuroPhotonics: unraveling the physics of signaling in intact neuronal networks”, brings together experts in the field of neurophysiology and excellent researchers in the field of photonics. The researchers hope to decipher the physical principles behind the generation and propagation of electric impulses in intact brain tissue. To do so, they will utilise advanced photonic techniques to be able to compensate for the inevitable distortion and scattering of light in tissue.

Photonics and neuroimaging

In addition to Kapitein, Utrecht University is also represented by neurobiologists Corette Wieringa and Maarten Kole (Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience/UU) and physicists Allard Mosk and Hans Gerritsen. Ivo Vellekoop from the University of Twente is a co-applicant for the project. Kapitein explains: “This programme is a welcome bridge between the photonics groups at the Department of Physics and the neuroimaging groups at Biology. I expect that this is just the beginning of more collaboration between both departments, in the fields of both research and education. We have a lot to learn from one another.”

More intensive cooperation

“It is fantastic that biology and physics are able to stimulate one another in this project. All of the applicants have worked long and hard on this, and in the process new collaborative efforts have developed, both within Utrecht University and with the University of Twente and the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience. This is a step towards more intensive cooperation between our fields”, according to co-applicant Mosk, Professor of Nanophotonics. Biophysicist Kapitein believes that the applications of their research will eventually be even broader. “The technology we develop will be widely applicable for other questions about the functioning of cells in their complex natural environments.”