Fri, Nov 15, 2019 page4

• LLM-CT captures 3D image of fly brain

  INSIGHT: The locally developed microscope can observe tissues 10,000 times the size of cells and could shed light on the memory mechanism of the brain, researchers said

  • By Chien Hui-ju and Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  Academia Sinica researchers have developed a microscope using light sheet localization microscopy for clarified tissue (LLM-CT) capable of performing a 3D imaging of the entire brain of a fly, expanding on the work of Nobel laureates.

  The researchers on Oct. 18 published their findings in the journal Nature Communications, in a paper titled “Rapid single-wavelength lightsheet localization microscopy for clarified tissue.”

  Chu Li-an (朱麗安) from the Brain Research Center at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) and the Institute of Physics at Academia Sinica, and Lu Chieh-han (呂杰翰) from the Institute of Physics and the Research Center for Applied Sciences at Academia Sinica shared equal authorship.

  Lu is also a research associate at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s department of molecular metabolism).

  Yang Shun-min (楊舜閔), Liu Yen-ting (劉彥廷), Feng Kuan-lin (馮冠霖), Tsai Yun-chi (蔡允齊), Chang Wei-kun (張煒?),Wang Wen-cheng (王文呈), Chang Shu-wei (張書維), Chen Peilin (陳培菱), Lee Ting-kuo (李定國), Hwu Yeu-kuang (胡宇光), Chiang Ann-shyn (江安世) and Chen Bi-chang (陳壁彰) were listed as co-authors of the paper.

  Chen Bi-chang is a former student of Eric Betzig, one of three scientists who shared the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

  The prize was awarded “for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy,” according to the Nobel Prize organization’s Web site.

  The LLM-CT microscope uses super-resolution 3D optical microscopy, Chen Bi-chang said.

  It allows tissues to be imaged on a scale 10,000 times the size of cells, he said.

  This technology could help achieve breakthroughs in studies of pathology and other fields, he said.

  It also has “the potential to reveal the memory mechanism of the brain,” he added.

  “Previous studies believe memory is formed by the accumulation of certain protein molecules, but there has yet to be direct evidence to prove” this, he said.

  Using exclusive technology, he and his colleagues saw the quantity and distribution of protein molecules in a housefly’s brain, he said.

  They also saw “the formation of memory proteins in specific nerve-cell synapses,” he said.

  They found that the mushroom body in a fly’s brain is “intricately related” to memory, he said.

  They observed the mushroom bodies of flies that had undergone memory training and ones that had not, and found that a type of protein called the vesicular monoamine transporter only increased in some synapses, he said.

  This shows that in single nerve cells, memory not only exists in the cell itself, but is also stored in the bridges of communication of nerve cells, he said.

  The microscope using the LLM-CT technique was entirely built in Taiwan.

  The team is now studying a mouse brain, which is larger, Chen Bi-chang said.

  “How memories are produced remains an unsolved mystery,” he said.

  In related news, Research Center for Applied Sciences director Shangjr Gwo (果尚志) said the center and NTUH’s College of Life Science and Brain Research Center are to sign a cooperative memorandum of understanding for an elite doctoral program.

  The center and the university hope to expand their partnership based on existing foundations, he said,

  They plan to provide outstanding candidates with sizable monthly scholarships to develop more talent in the field of fundamental research, Gwo said.
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