Nikolay Kutuzov - Postdoctoral fellowship 2021
Project summary:
Super-resolution microscopy to characterize nano-scale motion of brain capillaries
Microvessel pathologies cause a major public health burden. Conventional experimental methods do not have enough resolution to study subtle dynamics of microvessels. The goal of this project is to develop super-resolution methods to study nanoscale motion of microvessels and characterise their properties in living mice. We will deliver tools to track motion of walls of single microvessels in vivo with nanoscale resolution to study regulation of blood flow and mechanisms of development of microvascular pathologies.
Project Title
Decoding motion of microvessels in vivo with super-resolution microscopy
Background
Microvessels change their diameter to control blood flow in all organs and failure to do so results in serious pathologies. Two-photon and confocal microscopy, the gold standards of in vivo and in vitro imaging of blood vessels, fail to detect the diameter changes of capillaries in the nanometer range because of the limited optical resolution. As a result, the nanoscopic vasodynamics of microvessels in the brain, heart, kidney, and other organs remains mostly an unexplored territory.
Aim
To develop a method to measure and quantify nanoscopic dynamics of diameter of microvessels in vivo.
Methods
In vivo two-photon microscopy, analysis of stochastic signals.
Nikolay Kutuzov
- PhD
- Copenhagen University, Department of Neuroscience
Mentors & partners:
- Martin Lauritzen, Professor, MD, Neuroscience department, Copenhagen University
- Henrik Flyvbjerg, PhD, DSc, Emeritus, Health Technology Department, Technical University of Denmark