Principal Investigator Mehmet Fatih Yanik
Co-investigator Ann Graybiel
Researchers often use a method called laser capture microdissection (LCM) to analyze single cells within a tissue -- for example to identify genetic abnormalities that distinguish tumor cells from their healthy neighbors. The ability to analyze single cells is especially important in the brain, where cells of many different types are closely intermingled. However, because of the brain's dense meshwork of connections, it is often impossible to cleanly remove a single cell without contamination from adjacent cells. To solve this problem, Ann Graybiel of the McGovern Institute will collaborate with Mehmet Fatih Yanik in the MIT department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, who plans to develop a 3-dimensional laser-based cutting method that can dissect a single cell from its neighbors. Graybiel hopes to apply these new methods to her studies on the basal ganglia, brain regions implicated in Parkinson's disease, addictive behaviors and mood disorders.