Sukhdev Roy

Dayalbagh Educational Institute, India

Title: Controlling the Brain and Heart with Light and Sound

---

Biography

Professor Sukhdev Roy earned his B.Sc. (Honors) in Physics from Delhi University in 1986, followed by an M.Sc. in Electronics from DEI in 1988 and a Ph.D. from IIT Delhi in 1993. He has been with the Dayalbagh Educational Institute since 1993, currently serving as the Head of the Department of Physics and Computer Science. His experience includes visiting professorships at prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Waterloo, and universities in Germany, Japan, and the UK. Additionally, he was an Associate at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Italy from 2011 to 2014 and is a member of the Global Panel of MIT Technology Review.

Abstract

Optogenetics has made a strong impact in neuroscience by providing unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution in reading and writing neural codes with relatively lower invasiveness. In optogenetics, a genetically encoded light-sensitive protein is introduced into cells to make them sensitive to light. The expressed protein generates either inward or outward current in the presence of light, and can reversibly change the cell membrane voltage. Thus, the activity of these cells can be controlled and monitored with light. Optogenetics also enables all-optical control and recording of cellular activity in living tissue and opens up exciting prospects for optical neural prostheses. Recently, the first successful human trial of optogenetic retinal prostheses and promising results in cardiac optogenetics has been demonstrated. A key challenge in optogenetics is to excite deeply situated neurons non-invasively with low power and negligible heating. Although two-photon optogenetic excitation with infra-red light has enabled the excitation of deeply situated neurons with sub-cellular specificity and millisecond temporal resolution, it also causes heating of the targeted tissue due to high intensity of light required for excitation. On the other hand, sonogenetics can non-invasively modulate the cellular activity of neurons expressed with mechano-sensitive proteins in the deeper areas of the brain but it lacks spatial selectivity. Recently, sono-opto-genetics has also emerged for deep brain stimulation. In this technique, focused transcranial-ultrasound (FUS) excites mechanoluminescent nanoparticles that have a strong emission for optogenetic neural stimulation. The talk would discuss our recent exciting research results on efficient optogenetic and sono-optogenetic control of neurons and human ventricular cardiomyocytes and its applications in synaptic plasticity, vision restoration and optical pacing of the human heart. The future prospects of optogenetics will also be discussed.