Investigations of laser-induced neuronal guidance
Abstract
One of the long-standing goals of neuroscience has been to look for ways in
which to control neuronal growth. It has been discovered recently that placing a focused
near-infrared laser spot at the leading edge of a neuronal growth cone elicits a turn in the
direction of the laser spot [Ehrlicher et al., PNAS 99: 16024 (2002)]. Optical guidance
has the advantage over conventional neuronal guidance methods that neither steric strain
nor chemical gradients are necessary to its functionality. Although the success of optical
guidance suggests potential therapeutic applications, our first priority is to decipher the
mechanism underlying the phenomenon in order better to understand it. Several
hypotheses are presented as well as preliminary evidence supporting biased diffusion as
an appropriate model for the system.