Single-cell micro- and nano-photonic technologies

TL;DR

This paper reviews single-cell micro- and nano-photonic technologies used in neural interfaces, focusing on methods capable of controlling or monitoring individual nervous cells with high precision.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of current photonic approaches at the single-cell level, highlighting recent advances and potential for in vivo applications.

Findings

Various photonic techniques enable single-cell resolution in neural interfaces

Some methods have been successfully implemented in vivo

The review identifies promising future directions for single-cell photonics

Abstract

Since the advent of optogenetics, technology development has focused on new methods to optically interact with single nervous cells. This gave rise to the field of photonic neural interfaces, intended as the set of technologies that can modify light radiation in either a linear or non-linear fashion to control and/or monitor cellular functions. These include the use of plasmonic effects, up-conversion, electron transfer and integrated light steering, with some of them already implemented in vivo. This article will review available approaches in this framework, with a particular emphasis on methods operating at the single-unit level or having the potential to reach single-cell resolution.