Funded by HFSP and DAAD we are developing and testing optical sensors for neurotransmitters and other signalling molecules in the brain. Actually our collaborators in Austra (lab of Harald Janovjak, IST) and Australia (lab of Colin Jackson, ANU) are doing the hard work of designing the sensors while we test their suitability for imaging in intact tissue. To get a better understanding of what our colleagues at ANU are doing and to learn how to synthesize sensors ourselves here in Bonn we paid them a visit in November.

Needless to say it was quite pleasant to swap a northern hemisphere November for spring in Australia. More importantly, we now know how to produce the optical sensors ourselves. Also a first manuscript is nicely shaping up (sensor team ANU from left to right William Zhang, Jason Whitfield, Michel Herde (UKB), Colin Jackson, Ben Clifton).