Adam Bowman comes from a family of tinkerers. One grandfather worked on the engines of tractors and cars. The other had a boat, which Bowman worked on with him, and they also built radio-controlled model airplanes together. Today Bowman continues to tinker at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., but instead of working with airplanes and engines, he’s trying to make it easier for researchers to see cells in the brain communicate with one another, building technology that could be applied to many diseases and disorders, including Parkinson’s, schizophrenia, autism and cancer.
When neurons talk to one another, they send tiny charges of electricity through their membranes. Scientists can study this process by putting fluorescent proteins in the cells, making them glow. Most methods study the brightness of the proteins. Bowman’s method, called electro-optic fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (EO-FLIM), focuses on how long the proteins remain lit up after a fast laser pulse, making it possible to see one cell passing its electrical signal to another—a brain circuit in action. “It takes a really steady hand,” Bowman says of the methods he and his colleagues use to employ EO-FLIM in animal models.
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Several labs are now building EO-FLIM microscopes based on Bowman’s design. Some researchers, Bowman says, have used EO-FLIM to make better recordings of neuron activity in the brains of living fruit flies. He hopes the method can help other scientists study how, in people with Parkinson’s, the brain loses its ability to send messages. It could also be used to detect the rapid division of cells that is a hallmark of cancer.
Bowman has continued to develop EO-FLIM, but he notes that it takes time to turn techniques into marketable products. With the success he’s had so far, though, he can see the fluorescent light at the end of the tunnel.
This article is part of “The Young American Scientists,” an editorially independent project that was produced with financial support from Regeneron. Special thanks to the Exploratorium in San Francisco, where Bowman's portrait and video interview were captured.