Chris Xu: 3-photon microscopy for deep brain imaging

In this plenary talk, Chris Xu of Cornell University (USA) discusses 3-photon microscopy for deep brain imaging. This technology has vastly improved the signal-to-background ratio for deep imaging in a non-sparsely labeled brain, enabling new inroads into deep imaging of brain tissue, structural imaging, and imaging brain activity.

"Three-photon has vastly improved the signal-to-background ratio for deep imaging in non-sparsely labeled brain," Xu says. By combining a long wavelength (1300-1700 nm, the optimum spectral windows for deep imaging) with high excitation, researchers are making new inroads into deep imaging of brain tissue. Three-photon microscopy is also valuable for structural imaging and for imaging brain activity "in an entire mouse cortical column," Xu says.

Chris Xu is professor of Applied and Engineering Physics at Cornell University, and the Mong Family Foundation Director of Cornell Neurotech - Engineering. His current research areas are fiber optics and biomedical imaging, with major thrusts in multiphoton microscopy for deep brain imaging, multiphoton microendoscopy for clinical applications, and fiber-based devices and systems for telecommunications and optical imaging.

Prior to Cornell, he was a member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories. His main research focus at Bell Labs was on nonlinear imaging of semiconductor devices, fiber optics, and optical communications, including broadband access and ultralong haul transmission.

Xu received his PhD in Applied Physics from Cornell University and his BS in Physics from Fudan University (China). He served as the Director of Graduate Studies in Applied Physics from 2007-2013. He currently serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Applied and Engineering Physics.