Visualizing Membrane Dynamics by Electron Microscopy

Explore how cutting-edge electron microscopy techniques and volume imaging can capture fast, dynamic membrane and vesicle remodeling events during synaptic transmission at the ultrastructural level. 

In this webinar, you will learn:

• How vesicle dynamics regulate neurotransmission;
• Ultrastructural imaging techniques to capture membrane remodeling during neuronal activity;
• The benefits of spatial and temporal resolution when studying neurotransmission events.

Neurons communicate at specialized junctions, or synapses, via chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. Within a millisecond of neuronal stimulation, synaptic vesicles packed with neurotransmitters fuse with the presynaptic plasma membrane and release their contents. These neurotransmitters then bind and activate receptors on the postsynaptic membrane, resulting in cell-to-cell signal transmission. To sustain this neurotransmission, new vesicles are recruited to the sites of release. 

To understand how these processes occur on a spatial and temporal scale relevant to neuronal activity, we need to visualize vesicle dynamics at the ultrastructural level. 

To this end, we developed novel approaches in electron microscopy to capture fast membrane remodeling events during synaptic transmission. With the integration of volume imaging, we have described vesicle movements around release sites and how such dynamics regulate neurotransmission. In the webinar, we describe recent technological developments and our discoveries.