Local probing and stimulation of neuronal cells by optical manipulation

During development and in the adult brain, neurons continuously explore the environment searching for guidance cues, leading to the appropriate connections. Elucidating these mechanisms represents a gold goal in neurobiology. Here, I discuss our recent achievements developing new approaches to locally probe the growth cones and stimulate neuronal cell compartments with high spatial and temporal resolution. Optical tweezers force spectroscopy applied in conjunction with metabolic inhibitors reveals new properties of the cytoskeleton dynamics. On the other hand, using optically manipulated microvectors as functionalized beads or filled liposomes, we demonstrate focal stimulation of neurons by small number of signaling molecules.