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NI LabVIEW Module Improves Brain Cell Function Analysis

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NI LabVIEW and NI vision products create real-time data management system to measure and analyze cellular-level functionality.

Author(s):
Michael Noll-Hussong, M.D. - Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich

Industry:
University/Education

Products:
Vision, LabVIEW

The Challenge:
Recording and analyzing cellular calcium fluorescence data to study living neurons and their networks

The Solution:
Creating a PC-based, real-time data management system using National Instruments LabVIEW to measure and analyze cellular-level functionality.

"Through the use of LabVIEW, we saved approximately 30 to 40 percent of our development time. The intuitive graphical programming interface and outstanding integration of NI hardware in the LabVIEW environment were of particular importance. "

Examining the Link between Calcium and Neurotransmitter Function
Studying nerve cells can be one of the most exciting challenges in research, especially because the biology behind elementary processes like "learning" and "memory" is not yet completely understood. However, researchers have made major progress toward understanding brain functionality with the development of macroscopic (e.g., positron-emission tomography) and microscopic (e.g., confocal and multiphoton microscopy) imaging techniques. The mode-locked, laser-based microscopy technique makes it possible to visualize the dynamics of life processes at the subcellular level with a high temporal and spatial resolution, yielding new insights into cellular-level brain function.

Given calcium involvement in neuronal physiology and its pathology, studying changes in nerve cell intracellular calcium concentration is particularly important. To assess these changes, we can introduce fluorescent indicator dyes into living cells. These dyes emit light of varying wavelengths and/or intensities, depending on the intracellular calcium concentration.

Flexible, High-Workload System Gathers and Processes Data
Investigating the fundamental nervous system continually makes new demands on physiology hardware and software, and typical commercial software can be inflexible, monolithic, and unwieldy. We decided to use NI LabVIEW to create our own measurement and analysis system because it offers many positive options, including the capability to develop our own checkable program codes.

Using LabVIEW 6.1, NI IMAQ Vision 6.0.5, NI PCI-1409 image acquisition hardware, and NI PCI-6111 multifunction DAQ, we developed acquisition (FastRecord) and analysis (FastAnalysis) components to measure images obtained through laser microscopy. FastRecord gathers video data on a hard disk in real time, and FastAnalysis simultaneously process the images. Subsequent system features include detailed and final experimental data analysis, the ability to network with other data, such as electrophysiological parameters and temperature, and a microscope motor control logic integration. Other system modules include an Auto-ROI (region of interest) function to analyze static fluorescence microscopy images, and an alignment procedure based on antidrift correction structure recognition in prolonged image sequences.

Rapid, Tailored Results on Flexible, Common Platform
With our system, a single brain cell displays as a video image on the PC monitor. The mean brightness values of multiple ROIs display simultaneously beside the live image as brightness-versus-time courses. Pressing the record key stores image sequences of any desired length, without loss and in real time. This direct-to-storage method circumvents transient and non-permanent storage limitations and ensures that data can be directly available in other programs. In addition, trigger connections allow data exchange with a patch-clamp amplifier, so that image sequence recording begins at the onset of the electrophysiological experiment.

FastRecord and FastAnalysis represent a complete, high-resolution, temporal and spatial fluorescence data recording and analysis solution. FastRecord offers PC-based, real-time, lossless image data recording and simultaneous live fluorescence value graphical representation, while FastAnalysis analyzes and prepares that data for presentation.

The internal program coordination assures simple and intuitive use, with further expansion and integration possibilities. The widely used PC platform makes this program an economic alternative for qualitative (functionality) and quantitative (speedy) imaging experiments. Further, the program modularity allows for flexible integration in larger applications that, as LabVIEW-based complete software, accompany the entire course of an experiment through managing, controlling, measuring and analyzing.

Through the use of LabVIEW, we saved approximately 30 to 40 percent of our development time. The intuitive graphical programming interface and outstanding integration of NI hardware in the LabVIEW environment were of particular importance. We believe the NI academic program makes it easy for universities to research, develop, and educate using NI hardware and software.

For more information, contact:
Michael Noll-Hussong, M.D.
Institute of Physiology
Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich
Pettenkofer Str.12
D-80336 Muenchen
Germany
Tel: +49-089-5996 571
Fax: +49-089-5996 512
E-mail: noll-hussong@lrz.uni-muenchen.de

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