Elizabeth Hillman, PhD

Herbert and Florence Irving Professor at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute

Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology at Columbia University

How to image brains

Why do we image brains? Because we seek to explore their intricate form and function, to try to untangle how a clump of 200 billion cells can make each of us who we are. From the days of Cajal and Phineas Gage, through breakthroughs in electrophysiology and MRI, we have gradually added details to our understanding of the brain’s building blocks and organization. The past decade has borne numerous sophisticated animal models carrying rainbows of flashing fluorescent indicators, and highly selective methods to perturb cellular function. Imaging methods have become faster, more sensitive and in some cases, capable of imaging the entire 3D brain, all during complex awake behaviors. So what remains to be done? This talk will introduce the range of technologies and neuroscience questions that are the current focus of the Hillman lab, including high-speed wide-field optical mapping of neuronal activity and brain hemodynamics in awake mice, SCAPE microscopy for high-speed 3D microscopy of living organisms from worms, fish and flies to mouse cortex, and technologies for ultra large-scale, high-content proteomic imaging of cleared whole human brains. I will highlight how we are leveraging the unique capabilities of these techniques to study real-time, brain-wide representations of spontaneous behavior across species.

Host(s): Melinda Miller and Ivy Elkins

Please contact [email protected] with any questions.

This event will be in-person only and will not offer a Zoom option.
Open only to Columbia University and Columbia University Affiliates.
Speaker Location: Jerome L. Greene Science Center, 9th Floor Lecture Hall

Tuesdays@10 is a signature Zuckerman Institute initiative that aims to expose researchers at all levels to high-quality science and stimulate scientific discourse. The speakers featured in this series represent various fields and techniques in neuroscience, and are either external to Columbia (Columbia Neuroscience Seminars and Special Seminars) or are Columbia faculty members (Local Circuits) invited through a combined, collaborative effort of one or more of the following: Columbia's Zuckerman Institute, the Department of Neuroscience, the Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior and the Columbia Translational Neuroscience Initiative, and with support from the Kavli Institute for Brain Science. 

More information and a full schedule can be found here.