Technology Archive - Microendoscope

DeepEn at FENS 2024: Bringing Holographic Endoscopes to the Heart of Neuroscience

Jul 23, 2024 | exhibitions, Start-up News, Technology

Holographic Endoscope in Action!

In June, the whole DeepEn team, had the fantastic opportunity to showcase the prototype of an ultrathin endoscope live at FENS 2024, Europe’s largest neuroscience conference, in Vienna.

The event gave us a chance to connect with an incredible community of neuroscientists, from Principal Investigators (PIs) to PhD students and industry colleagues. We were thrilled that everything worked out so well and that we could demonstrate how minimally invasive, hair-thin microendoscopy can be applied in deep-brain calcium imaging to such a large and relevant audience.

Holographic endoscope technology has long been confined to a few specialised photonics labs scattered around the world, with only a small number of researchers able to use it to explore biological questions through limited collaborations. However, holographic endoscopes have proven their value as powerful microscopy tools providing high-resolution spatial and temporal imaging in deep tissue regions—such as the amygdala and brainstem—that are notoriously difficult to access with other optical methods.

Therefore, we were proud to demonstrate a miniaturised, yet robust holographic endoscope system that can empower new, exciting discoveries in laboratories worldwide in the future.

Preliminary imaging results from Prof. Janelle Pakan

On the first day of the FENS2024 conference, during the Photonics for Brain Workshop led by our DeepEn co-founder Tomas Cizmar, Prof. Janelle Pakan presented, among other great results, imaging results from a previous collaboration with DeepEn at the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN) and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Magdeburg.

In her study, a holographic endoscope was used to examine deep brain cerebellar circuitry in mouse models. The DeepEn system was used to record calcium signals from mossy fibres. Observing the activity of these deep-seated brain cells in correlation with the organism’s locomotion and speed could yield new insights into the functioning of cerebrocerebellar pathways.

Thanks to Prof. Pakan for the great project and for presenting the calcium imaging results to the broader neuroscience community!

Engaging with the Neuroscientists

The interest in holographic endoscopy at FENS 2024 exceeded our expectations.

Throughout the four-day event, many researchers visited the DeepEn booth to see the live demos and discuss how this cutting-edge technology could advance their own work. We were also impressed and inspired by the wide range of topics covered in the scientific program and at the poster sessions.

We walked away from the conference with many new ideas, potential collaborations, and a deep gratitude for the researchers who took the time to engage with us. We can’t wait to see where the future takes the rapidly advancing field of holographic endoscopy and how it will continue to advance brain research worldwide.

See NeuroDeep® in action at 2 Demo Days in October

Okt 20, 2023 | exhibitions, Technology

Experience the developmental system of the world’s first holographic microendoscope in action in Magdeburg or Vienna.

An exciting time for DeepEn’s team. We proudly present the result of 2 years of work during 2 demo sessions at the end of October. The minimally invasive microendoscope NeuroDeep goes on tour. Busy times!

Demo #1 at 3rd Day of Intravital Microscopy – 23.10 and 24.10 in Magdeburg

This event is organized by the team “Intravital Microscopy” of German Bioimaging, an association of experts to connect practical performers of intravital microscopy and exchange techniques, methods, tips, and tricks. As such, it is very fortunate that this year, the Day of Intravital Microscopy is held at our partner institute in Magdeburg, the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, short LIN. Not only will two members of the DeepEn team show you the current performance of our NeuroDeep test system, but our co-founder Prof. Dr. Tomas Cizmar will also give a presentation about the the photonic technology behind it.

Demo #2 at IEEE Sensors 2023 – 30.10. in Vienna

If you are in Vienna and joining the IEEE Sensors, you can meet us for a demonstration on the 30th of October. The IEEE Sensors brings together almost 1000 researchers, engineers, and industry players for one of the most impactful gatherings with a focus on sensors and sensor systems. Optical fibres have been used for a long time as sensors, for example, to measure heat, deformation, or the concentration of chemicals. However, the possibility of using fibres for imaging should be very new to many in the community. We are looking forward to the feedback from the experts after our demonstration of our minimally invasive deep brain imaging system.

Excited for the first Demo

The functionality of the system has already been tested in different Neuroscience labs all over Europe. Now we want to demonstrate it to the critical eye of the public in order to collect even more valuable feedback. And of course, there is always excitement involved. Will the intricate optoelectronic heart of NeuroDeep work under the unpredictable and suboptimal conditions during a live demo? We are willing to try!

Contact

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Bringing Neurophotonics to Laser World

Jun 29, 2023 | exhibitions, start-up news, Technology

First time as a Strat-up at Europe’s biggest Photonics Trade Show

From June 27th to June 30th, 2023, our DeepEn colleagues Sergey (CEO) and Jiri (CTO) embarked on a significant journey to attend the Laser World of Photonics conference in Munich, one of Europe’s largest and most important photonics events. Their primary objective was to showcase the innovative potential of microendoscopy in the field of neurophotonics.

For Sergey, this marked his inaugural visit to a photonics convention not as a scientist but as a business leader. The two co-founders were on a mission to present DeepEn’s vision of introducing the first commercially available microendoscope for neuroscience applications. NeuroDeep® 1.0 represents an advanced laboratory setup that utilizes state-of-the-art holographic principles to facilitate microscopic imaging through an incredibly thin fiber. This technology is designed to serve as an endoscopic probe for minimally invasive imaging of living brain tissue.

Depending on the circumstances, NeuroDeep has the capacity to enable neuroscientists to achieve high-resolution or high-speed imaging of deep brain regions. This opens up possibilities for structural and functional imaging in critical areas such as the hippocampus, amygdala, or brain stem, all without the need to extract the overlying tissue.

NeuroDeep can already reliably resolve submicrometric features, such as dendritic spines, which can be imaged using commonly used fluorescence-labelling techniques. This capability can allow researchers to better observe changes caused by neurodegenerative diseases over time. To make deep brain neuron activity visible NeuroDeep can also be used for calcium imaging techniques. In the near future, DeepEn aims to tackle what is widely considered the holy grail of neuroimaging: voltage imaging, which would enable the visualization of neuron action potentials at significantly higher frequencies.

At the Laser World of Photonics in Munich, our project received substantial interest and attention. We shared a booth with colleagues from the research association Leibniz Health Technologies, and we are immensely grateful to them for providing us with this opportunity.

The thinnest endoscopes in the world – article in magazine chemiepharma-innovation.ch

Feb 28, 2023 | start-up news, Technology

The DeepEn team is working at full speed and with motivation to make hair-thin endoscopes developed at the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology usable for broad applications in neuroscience and medicine.

You want to learn more about DeepEn, our technology and the spin-off? Then read the article „The thinnest endoscopes in the world“ by B2B Swiss Medien AG from the magazine Innovation Chemie Pharma.

Link to the article

Screenshot 2023-04-21 at 13-48-15 Die dünnsten Endoskope der Welt

Start-ups in Thuringia – ThExAward 2022

Nov 18, 2022 | start-up news, Technology

Yesterday, DeepEn was awarded 2nd place in the Startup/Foundation category of the #ThExAward2022 competition in Erfurt. The ThEx Award – the Thuringian Startup Award – is the most prestigious award for successful founders and startups in Thuringia. In addition to the award and prize money, the Founder’s Award is particularly distinguished by its support for startups and companies in the Free State of Thuringia. The competition recognizes and honors outstanding ideas and achievements as well as special commitment of Thuringian founders.

The award and the prize money of 4000 € were presented to our teammates Patrick Westermann and Jirka Hofbrucker by the Thuringian Minister for Economy and Science, Wolfgang Tiefensee. We would like to thank the jury and ThEx Enterprise for organizing a great event!

Our spin-off startup from the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technologies is on its way to provide users in neuroscience and medicine with ultra-thin imaging tools.

#GRÜNDEN #technology #startup #jena #forschung #optik #photonics #neuroimaging #endoscopy #neuroscience #medicine

DeepEn’s in-vivo imaging technology at FENS 2022 – Meeting the brightest minds in Neuroscience.

Jul 14, 2022 | exhibitions, research, Technology

As a young startup with a technological background in the field of photonics and an ambition to provide helpful tools to neuroscientists, it is very important for the DeepEn Team to understand where modern brain research is moving.

And what would be a better place to get connected with the top of the field than the FENS Forum of neuroscience, the largest international neuroscience meeting in Europe? Therefore, DeepEn Team members Hana and Sergey went to Paris to connect with key-opinion-leaders in the field of brain research and catch up with partners and collaborators that were essential to get holographic endoscopy where it is today. The two used the time of the conference from 9-13 of July 2022 to connect with leading scientists and present and discuss the in-vivo imaging technology with them.

The FENS (Federation of European Neuroscience Societies) conference is renowned for gathering top-tier scientists, researchers, and industry professionals, and serves as an annual platform for knowledge exchange, breakthrough sharing, and collaboration in neuroscience. From the very start of the DeepEn research transfer project, we were sure that FENS was the place to be for us.

And we were very happy that we also had time not only to build new relations, but also strengthen existing once. Our colleagues from ISI-CAS in Brno were at FENS, as well as colleagues from LIN in Magdeburg and the University of Edinburgh. It was in Scotland where DeepEn Co-founders Tomas and Sergey first collaborated with neuroscientists to use the holographic endoscopy for bioimaging successfully. If you are interested, read more about the results of this collaboration in this paper. Meeting up again with the colleagues and brainstorming about prospective future projects gave us a lot of inspiration.

All in all, though we could not yet demonstrate the prototype of DeepEn’s first device, the NeuroDeep V1.0 Laboratory system, we could still gather information, make new contacts, and get the opinion of scientists in the different areas of neuroscience. Be sure that DeepEn will be back at FENS in the near future, then with our own holographic endoscope prototype ready to be showcased.