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HOW WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE

OUR MISSION


"Our work focuses on the use of nonlinear optical interactions between femtosecond-duration laser pulses and biological material as a tool for precise ablation of structures and quantitative observation of dynamical processes in live biological samples."


Multiple positions for post-doctoral researchers in the Schaffer-Nishimura Lab


icon_research   FEATURES

Our lab is interested in studying the contribution of multiple physiological systems to disease initiation and progression, with applications in neurodegenerative disease, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.  We would like to understand how the vascular, immune, inflammatory systems and cells native to a tissue interact in these diseases. A major challenge in such work is that model systems such as cell culture or even organotypic tissue culture cannot fully recapitulate all the different cell types involved in disease, so in vivo studies are required. However, it is experimentally difficult to study and manipulate cell-level dynamics in live animals. Recently, we have worked to develop technologies such as improved imaging using multiphoton microscopy that work in whole animals and have sufficient spatial and temporal resolution to quantify cellular dynamics. We also now have tools, femtosecond laser ablation, to produce targeted disruption with cellular-scale precision.

icon_news   NEWS

icon_paper   PUBLICATIONS

VEGF signalling causes stalls in brain capillaries and reduces cerebral blood flow in Alzheimer’s mice (2022)

Causes and consequences of baseline cerebral blood flow reductions in Alzheimer’s disease (2021)

Genetically engineered mice for combinatorial cardiovascular optobiology (2021)

High fat diet worsens Alzheimer’s disease-related behavioral abnormalities and neuropathology in APP/PS1 mice, but not by synergistically decreasing cerebral blood flow (2020)

A pilot study investigating the effects of voluntary exercise on capillary stalling and cerebral blood flow in the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (2020)

Photo Credit: Dave Burbank, Kathryn Henion, or Schaffer-Nishimura lab members