Professor of Neurobiology*
*and of Physics

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Research Interests

Using concepts developed in astronomy and optics, we develop next-generation optical microscopy methods for understanding the brain at higher resolution, greater depth, and faster time scales. We apply our imaging technologies to understanding neural circuit computation in the visual pathways, using the mouse primary visual cortex and superior colliculus as our model systems.

Selected Publications

J. L. Fan, J. A. Rivera, W. Sun, J. Peterson, H. Haeberle, S. Rubin, N. Ji. High-speed volumetric two-photon fluorescence imaging of neurovascular dynamics. Nature Communications 11, 6020 (2020).

Z. Li, Q. Zhang, S.-W. Chou, Z. Newman, R. Turcotte, R. Natan, Q. Dai, E. Y. Isacoff, N. Ji. Fast widefield imaging of neuronal structure and function with optical sectioning in vivo. Science Advances 6, eaaz3870 (2020).

J. Wu, Y. Liang, S. Chen, C.-L. Hsu, M. Chavarha, S. W. Evans, D. Shi, M. Z. Lin, K. K. Tsia*, N. Ji. Kilohertz two-photon fluorescence microscopy imaging of neural activity in vivo. Nature Methods 17, 287–290 (2020). 

R. Lu, Y. Liang, G. Meng, P. Zhou, K. Svoboda, L. Paninski, N. Ji. Rapid mesoscale volumetric imaging of neural activity with synaptic resolution. Nature Methods 17, 291–294 (2020).

R. Turcotte, Y. Liang, M. Tanimoto, Q. Zhang, Z. Li, M. Koyama, E. Betzig, N. Ji. Dynamic super-resolution structured illumination imaging in the living brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 116, 9586-9591 (2019).

G. Meng, Y. Liang, S. Sarsfield, W. C. Jiang, R. Lu, J. T. Dudman, Y. Aponte, N. Ji. High-throughput synapse-resolving two-photon fluorescence microendoscopy for deep-brain volumetric imaging in vivo. Elife e40805 (2019).

R. Lu, W. Sun, Y. Liang, A. Kerlin, J. Bierfeld, J. E. Seelig, D. E. Wilson, B. Scholl, B. Mohar, M. Tanimoto, M. Koyama, D. Fitzpatrick, M. B. Orger, N. Ji. Video-rate volumetric functional imaging of the brain at synaptic resolution. Nature Neuroscience 20, 620-628 (2017).

W. Sun, Z. Tan, B. D. Mensh, N. Ji.  Thalamus provides layer 4 of primary visual cortex with orientation- and direction-tuned inputs. Nature Neuroscience 19, 308-315 (2016).

K. Wang, W. Sun, C. T. Richie, B. K. Harvey, E. Betzig, N. Ji.  Direct wavefront sensing for high-resolution in vivo imaging in scattering tissue. Nature Communications 6, 7276 (2015).

C. Wang, R. Liu, D.E. Milkie, W. Sun, Z. Tan, T.-W. Chen, D.S. Kim, N. Ji.  Multiplexed aberration measurement for deep tissue imaging in vivo. Nature Methods 11, 1037-1040 (2014). 

Photo by Matt Staley

Last Updated 2021-08-05