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<div align="center"><font face="Times New Roman"
color="#000000"><b>Seminar on</b></font></div>
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color="#000000"><b>Modern Optics and Spectroscopy</b></font></div>
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<div align="center"><font face="Times New Roman"
color="#000000"><i><b>On-chip femtosecond
neurosurgery</b></i></font></div>
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<div align="center"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><b>M.
Fatih Yanik</b>, MIT</font></div>
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<div align="center"><font face="Times New Roman"
color="#000000">Tuesday, October 21, 2008</font></div>
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<div align="center"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">12:00
- 1:00 p.m.</font></div>
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<div align="center"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">In
recent years, the advantages of using small invertebrate animals as
model systems for human diseases have become increasingly apparent,
and have resulted in two Nobel Prizes in Physiology and Medicine in
2002 and 2006 for the discoveries made in the nematode<i> C.
elegans</i>. The availability of a wide array of species-specific
genetic techniques, along with the animal's transparency, and its
ability to grow in minute volumes make<i> C. elegans</i> an extremely
versatile model organism. However, since the first studies in the
early 1960s, little has changed in how scientists manipulate this
multi-cellular organism. As a result, neural regeneration and<i> in
vivo</i> high-throughput screens at cellular or sub-cellular
resolution could not be performed. We present key technologies for
complex high-throughput whole-animal genetic and drug screens at
sub-cellular resolution using femtosecond laser technology and
microfluidics. We demonstrate high-speed microfluidic sorters, which
isolate and immobilize single awake animals in well-defined geometries
for high-throughput<i> in vivo</i> imaging and surgery of phenotypic
features at sub-cellular resolution using femtosecond lasers. We show
integrated chips containing multiple addressable incubation chambers
for exposure of individual animals to biochemical compounds and
high-resolution time-lapse imaging of many animals on a single chip
without the need for anesthesia. We show devices for delivery of
compound libraries in standard multi-well plates to microfluidic
devices and also for rapid dispensing of screened animals into
multi-well plates. These technologies allow various types of
high-throughput<i> in vivo</i> assays on small-animals at sub-cellular
resolution including mutagenesis, RNAi and compound screens, as well
as high-throughput<i> in vivo</i> neural degeneration and regeneration
studies.</font></div>
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<div align="center"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Grier
Room, MIT Bldg 34-401</font></div>
<div align="center"><font face="Times New Roman"
color="#000000">Refreshments served after the lecture</font></div>
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