News & Events
Multiphoton microscopy of the microvasculature in the brain and beyond
Dr. Nozomi Nishimura, Professor for Biomedical Engineering, Cornell-Ithaca
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
8:30 a.m.9:30 a.m.
Sloan Auditorium - Joint Seminar with BME
Abstract:
Multiphoton microscopy is a powerful tool for
investigating the contribution of multiple physiological systems to
disease. Our goal is to study how the
vascular, immune, and inflammatory systems interact in a tissue during
disease. We develop experimental and
analysis tools for in vivo imaging studies in several organ systems with a
focus on the role of the microvasculature.
In brain, we have been investigating the relationship between Alzheimer’s
disease and dysfunctional microvasculature.
Vascular health is increasingly being recognized as a critical factor in
Alzheimer’s. In both humans with
Alzheimer’s disease and mouse models of Alzheimer’s, cerebral blood flow is
decreased by as much as 30% relative to age-matched controls. We have identified one mechanism that
contributes to the perfusion reduction.
We found an elevation in the number of brain capillaries plugged by
leukocytes in transgenic ad mice as compared to age-matched controls. Although the fraction of capillaries that are
plugged is small, our models suggest that these plugged capillaries are the
cause of the blood flow reduction in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease
patients. This blood flow change could
accelerate dementia in Alzheimer’s disease.
Before the use of multiphon microscopy, these microscopic disturbances
in blood flow went unrecognized. In
other organs, motion makes microscopy difficult, but recent innovations enable
studies with similar resolution as in brain.
We cannot study microvascular dynamics in the intestine as well as the
beating heart in mice.
Bio:
Nozomi Nishimura grew up in Tucson,
Arizona. She majored in physics at Harvard College where she worked
with Prof. Eric Mazur on Femtosecond Laser Ablation. In graduate
school, she became interested in neuroscience and worked with Prof. David
Kleinfeld at University of California at San Diego. Although still
in the Physics Department, her research focused on studying blood flow in the
grain of rodents and developing laser-based models of small stoke, she came to
Biomedical Engineering at Cornell in 2006 to do a Postdoc with Prof. Chris
Schaffer. At Cornell, current research expands the use of vivo
imaging techniques to studies of Alzheimer’s disease and other pathologies in
both brain and other organs.