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Keller Lab

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Lab Updates

09/29/19 | How Neural Circuits Form in a Developing Embryo: HHMI news coverage of our collaborative work with the Druckmann lab on imaging and reconstructing the emergence of population activity in the developing zebrafish spinal cord (Wan et al. 2019, Cell)
11/30/18 | Making Brain-Wide Changes to Neurons “on the Fly”: HHMI news coverage of our collaborative work with the Ahrens lab on brain-wide circuit interrogation using online analysis of neuronal function (Vladimirov, Wang, Höckendorf et al. 2018, Nature Methods)
10/11/18 | New Microscope Offers 4-D Look at Embryonic Development in Living Mice: HHMI news coverage of our work on imaging and reconstructing post-implantation mouse development (McDole et al. 2018, Cell)
11/03/16 | Smart Microscope Adapts to Changes in Live Specimens: HHMI news coverage of our work on adaptive light-sheet microscopy (Royer et al. 2016, Nature Biotechnology)
10/26/15 | Seeing the Big Picture: HHMI news coverage of our work on IsoView light-sheet microscopy (Chhetri et al. 2015, Nature Methods)
12/16/14 | Janelia Scientists Win Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition: HHMI news coverage of the 2014 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition
09/01/14 | Keeping Tabs on Development: HHMI news coverage of our work on automated cell tracking during Drosophila embryogenesis (Amat et al. 2014, Nature Methods)
07/20/14 | Reconstructing an Animal’s Development Cell by Cell: HHMI news coverage of our work on automated system-level cell lineage reconstructions (Amat et al. 2014, Nature Methods)
05/01/13 | Flashes of Insight: HHMI news coverage of our work on whole-brain functional imaging in zebrafish (Ahrens et al. 2013, Nature Methods)
09/01/12 | Not Your Parents’ Home Video: HHMI news coverage of our work on reconstructing Drosophila embryonic development (Tomer et al. 2012, Nature Methods)
09/01/12 | The View from Here: HHMI news coverage of our computational efforts towards system-level cell lineaging in developing embryos (Tomer et al. 2012, Nature Methods)
06/03/12 | Keeping Up with Embryogenesis: HHMI news coverage of our work on SiMView light-sheet microscopy (Tomer et al. 2012, Nature Methods)
07/04/10 | New Microscope Lets Scientists Make Movies of Early Animal Development: HHMI news coverage of our work on structured illumination light-sheet microscopy (Keller et al. 2010, Nature Methods)
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Current Research
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Animal development is one of the most complex processes encountered in biology. In early embryonic development of vertebrates and higher invertebrates, a single cell is transformed into a fully functioning organism comprising tens of thousands of cells that build tissues and organs able to perform the most challenging tasks. Understanding development and the concurrent emergence of function at this system-wide level is one of the most fundamental goals of biology.

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Working toward this goal, we perform highly interdisciplinary research at the interface of neuroscience, developmental biology and biophysics, and develop high-speed light-sheet microscopy technology and automated approaches to computer vision to enable this research. The objective of our research is to uncover the fundamental rules governing neural development, and to systematically link development to the functional activation of circuits in the nervous system. In the long-term perspective, we would like to use these data to establish and validate a computer model of the developing nervous system and, ultimately, of the entire embryo.

To elucidate these key principles at the system level, we (1) perform live imaging of entire developing fruit fly, zebrafish and mouse embryos, focusing in particular on the developing nervous system, (2) computationally analyze the patterns of cell migration, cell division and axonal outgrowth underlying the formation of the nervous system, and (3) study the emergence of functional connectivity and patterned neural activity in the early nervous system.

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