Mark J. Schnitzer

Research/Lab website:   Schnitzer Lab Web Site

Mark Schnitzer is an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the Departments of Biological Sciences and of Applied Physics. He is a faculty member of the Neuroscience, Biophysics, and Molecular Imaging Programs in the Stanford School of Medicine, as well as of the Stanford Brain Research Institute. Schnitzer has longstanding interests in neural circuit dynamics and optical imaging, and his laboratory has two major research efforts that are mutually complementary:

In vivo two-photon fluorescence imaging studies of cerebellar-dependent learning and memory. Classical or Pavlovian conditioning is one of the simplest and earliest known forms of associative memory. A modern version of such conditioning that is suitable for use in mice and that depends critically on cerebellar function is classical eyeblink conditioning, in which a subject is trained to blink in response to a conditioning stimulus such as an audible tone. Many theories of how this cerebellar-dependent form of learning occurs focus on cerebellar Purkinje neurons, which exhibit highly regular anatomical patterns of neural connections. The Schnitzer lab has shown that they can image up to ~50 Purkinje cells simultaneously in live mice using in vivo two-photon fluorescence imaging. By combining in vivo imaging and electrophysiological techniques with behavioral and computational approaches, the lab seeks to understand the neural circuit dynamics in the cerebellar cortex that underlie learning, memory, and forgetting.

Fiber optic fluorescence microendoscopy. The Schnitzer group has recently invented two forms of fiber optic fluorescence imaging, respectively termed one- and two-photon fluorescence microendoscopy, that enable minimally invasive in vivo imaging of cells within deep (brain) tissues with micron-scale resolution. For example, the group has been able to obtain video-rate movies of red blood cell flow within the rat hippocampus and thalamus, and to visualize hippocampal neurons and dendrites within live mice. The Schnitzer group now seeks to develop and apply microendoscopy to applications in both basic neurobiology and clinical settings. The ability to image cells deep within the live mammalian brain promises to permit studies of how cellular properties are impacted by environment, training, or over the course of life.