For decades, neuroscientists have destroyed nerves to study how well they can regenerate. Recently a team led by Stanford University physicist Mehmet Fatih Yanik brought new exactitude to this art by using a femtosecond laser to cut the outstretched arms, or axons, of individual nerve cells in the tiny worm Caenorhabditis elegans. The laser fires 40-nanojoule bursts that last only 200 quadrillionths of a second. It cut 0.3-micron gaps in motor neuron axons with so little surrounding damage that the axons regenerated within a day. Yanik says he is the first to slice lone neurons with a laser.

This article was originally published with the title Lone Neuron Cut.

1 Comments

1. 1. ligia_abohande 06:07 PM 9/14/08

   why do they need to cut a axon?

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