Title: Targeted Neuro-modulation by Non-invasive Ultrasound

Time：14:00, 22/04/2019

Speaker：Dr. Lei Sun

Place：Room 506, Building 9, Ming Palace Campus

Organizers:State key laboratory of mechanics and control of mechanical structures, College of Aerospace Engineering

The summary of report：

Capable of non-invasive transmission trough skull with fine focal size (~mm), ultrasonic (US) neuro-modulation is a promising means and a good alternative to existing stimulating strategies. Here we demonstrate precise control of neural activity and signaling through gating mechanosensitive ion channels (such as Piezo1, MscL) by non-invasive ultrasonic stimulation. Our results show when triggered by ultrasound, Piezo1 or MscL was activated to induce reversible neuronal activity (e.g. calcium influx, membrane potential) and significant modifications in signaling (e.g. p-CREB and p-CaMKII upregulation). In addition, the ultrasonic stimulation in M1 area of mouse brain induced excitation of targeted neurons resulting in body movement and neural activation marker protein c-Fos expression level. This study demonstrates the feasibility of targeting ultrasound into deep brain structures non-invasively with brain wide scalability, allowing precise control of local and global neural activity.

Speaker profile：

Dr. Lei SUN received his PhD degree in Bioengineering from Pennsylvania State University in 2004. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Southern California during 2004 to 2008. The he joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2008. Currently he is the associate head and associate professor there. Dr. SUN’s research integrates multi-disciplinary areas of biology, physics and engineering, and studies ultrasound as a non-invasive mechanical wave for therapy and imaging. His current research interests include ultrasound neuro-modulation, ultrasound and photoacoustic molecular imaging and theranostics, and 444ultrasound instrumentation.