Engineering Functionalised Nanodiamond for In-Vivo Imaging of Neural Processes

One of the key scientific challenges of the 21st century is to better understand the principles that allow a collection of neural cells to work as a fully functioning brain. The complexity of neurobiology, along with the range of possible parameters to be investigated means that new techniques are embraced and quickly incorporated. In the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, a research unit with in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, we use optical and electrical techniques to better understand the brains of fruit flies.

Nanodiamond (ND) offers many advantages as a fluorescent label for biological applications. Its biocompatibility, potential sensitivity to electric and magnetic fields, lack of photobleaching and the possibility of targetting specific neural structures are all of particular interest to researchers in neurophysiology. This PhD project aims to develop a comprehensive suite of tools and techniques that will enable superresolution imaging of NDs in brain tissue. By utilising Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) microscopy, in conjunction with adaptive optics, it will be possible to image ND tens of microns into tissue with a resolution of 50nm. Achieving this resolution will allow imaging of synapic sites, the anatomical features where signals are passed from one neuron to another, thereby allowing a better understanding of the propagation of information through the brain. It follows that a key goal for the student will be to obtain a better understanding of how best to functionalise and bind ND to sites of interest, such as synapses, within a brain.

In order to allow both superresolution imaging, and the later extension to electric and magnetic field sensing, it will also be important to understand how nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in the ND are affected by the surface chemistry required for functionalisation, as this may influence the optical activity of the NV centres.

Due to the requirement to develop the software and hardware required for the successful completion of the PhD, candidates should possess a strong background in physics or engineering alongside any relevant biological and biochemical expertise.

This PhD project is funded by the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Diamond Science and Technology, a partnership of 8 universities and 30 companies led by the University of Warwick. The DST CDT brings together Warwick, Aberystwyth, Bristol, Cardiff, Imperial, Newcastle, Oxford and Strathclyde universities in partnership with industry to bring diamond research to a new threshold which promises many pioneering diamond enabled technologies and original scientific insights. Together this team will deliver innovative and interdisciplinary training and research that will help cross that threshold and impact significantly in many areas of strategic interest.

The new Centre for Doctoral Training will train research students to tackle many such projects. They will be a new breed of graduate researchers that can work across disciplines with a skill-set that enables the multi-disciplinary research challenges to be tackled head on. Those graduates will be a highly skilled multi-disciplinary resource equipped not just for diamond based research but a wide variety of high performance material applications. The integrated four year training programme starts at Warwick with a MSc focussed on all aspects of DST and graduates will emerge, trained with expertise across disciplines covering synthesis, material science, modelling, characterisation, engineering, device integration and material processing, photonics, quantum, entrepreneurship etc. in addition to transferable skills. The successful applicant will then study for a PhD at the University of Oxford. The MSc mini-projects are thematically linked to the PhD such that the students experience a minimum of three different university or industry research environments during the four year training programme.