This research line is dedicated to the development of experimental approaches for high-speed volumetric imaging and to their application to answer biologically-relevant questions.

In particular, we developed a new custom-made two-photon light-sheet microscope and optimized it for high peak power of excitation light, while finely controlling its polarisation and implementing remote scanning of the focal plane to record without disturbing the sample. In this way, we obtained unparalleled temporal resolution, while keeping cellular spatial resolution. Ongoing technical development is pursued to continuously improve the performance of the experimental setup.

We apply this microscope to study zebrafish physiology and pathology. In particular, we were able to record whole-brain neuronal activity of the zebrafish larva with high temporal- and spatial-resolution during the nocturnal phase of the circadian rhythm without affecting its sleep state. Moreover, we studied the fast dynamics that characterize the acutely induced pathological epileptic activity of the zebrafish larva identifying drug susceptibility patterns. We are currently expanding our experimental activity also to other physiological and pathological aspects of the zebrafish organism relating, but not limited to, the nervous system.