In <393tjg$r67 at usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, ery2 at po.CWRU.Edu (Edwin R. Yeh) writes:
)In a previous article, tbannor at aol.com (T Bannor) says:
)>I am looking for information on systems that can be used for high speed,
)>real time image analysis of cells such as neurons using voltage sensitive
)>dyes. Specifically, I'd like to know if any such systems are currently
)>available and how much they cost.
)I have a list of references on voltage dyes and am considering setting
)up a system myself. In fact, I am going to watch one of my colleague
)doing an experiment this week (but he uses it to study the action
)potential of the heart rather than the brain.) If you are interested in
)the references, I suggested looking under names such as Blasdel, Grinvald,
)Hochman, Obermayer, MacVicar, etc. Many of them have used them to study
)the cortical organization of the visual system (i.e. ocular dominance and
)orientation selectivity columns.) In addition, it is also possible to
)visualize action potential in the hippocampal slice using intrinsic optical
)signals. However, the temporal resolution is limited due to the long
)response time.
I am a colleague of Grinvald's. What would you like to know ?
Grinvald is marketing a system for slow optical signals. It costs
$80,000. Fuji is marketing a partial solution for fast signals (1700hz frame
rate), and it costs at least $100,000 (Grinvald's system is a complete system
for data taking and analysis, the Fuji system probably would require an
additional $20,000 to make it useful).
If you are into hacking yourself, you might be able to put together
a system for slow signals, for say $20,000, and for fast signals $30,000-50,000.
Of course, if you are satisfied with a single point measurement, you
could always just use a single photodiode...
Cheers,
Dan Ts'o 713-798-3331
Div. Neuroscience FAX: 713-798-3897
Baylor College of Medicine
1 Baylor Plaza S553 dan at dna.neusc.bcm.tmc.edu
Houston, TX 77030 tso at cephalo.neusc.bcm.tmc.edu
