Forschung Serwane
Overview
Our team integrates concepts of physics and biology to develop a model system for a retinal neuronal network.
The high accessibility and tunability of our in vitro system will allow us to address fundamental questions at the interface between physics and biology :
- What are the mechanical cues that guide the self-organization of retina tissues ?
- How are light-induced neuronal signals processed within these tissues ?
- Can we use these systems as powerful in vitro disease models ?
See also :
Research
1. Mechanics
To illuminate the role of mechanics, we will use ferrofluid droplets as mechanical actuators, a technique which has been developed by us (Serwane et al., Nature Methods, 2017 ) and is now used to understand the role of mechanics in 3D developing tissues (Mongera et al., Nature 2018, ). We found that retinal organoids remodel scale-free: 2
This provides insights about the mechanical properties underlying the formation of neuronal networks.
2. Electrical Function
Spatiotemporal patterns of light will be used to stimulate neuronal activity within the retina tissue which we will then quantify using neuroscience tools such as calcium imaging. For this we make use of our custom-built lightsheet microscope to record volumetric calcium responses in 3D.
3. Desease Modelling
Beyond basic research the system we prepare will open the door to understanding and modelling of neuronal diseases. Mechanical abnormalities are key risk factors for a variety of pathological conditions. Therefore, finding new diagnosis and treatment tools targeting tissue mechanics might pave the way to novel approaches tackling retina diseases.
Our retina organoids have been used as a testbed for viral vectors, a delivery mechanisms for future gene therapies. Previous approaches for testing viros efficiency required sample fixation or did not provide spatial resolution. We developed a pipeline for testing transduction efficiency on a single neuron level in intact living retina organoids.
Open Positions
We are continuously accepting Bachelor and Master students.
We have open PhD and Postdoc positions. For more information please see here.