Nanopatterning by molecular self-assembly on surfaces.

The ability to pattern surfaces down to the nanoscale is of increasing importance in nanoscience research. The use of supramolecular chemistry to drive the formation of self-assembled networks allows for a bottom-up approach to achieve nanopatterned surfaces. This short review highlights some of the recent breakthroughs in achieving long-range order in such molecular based systems, complemented with examples from our own work.

Presynaptic induction and expression of timing-dependent long-term depression demonstrated by compartment-specific photorelease of a use-dependent NMDA receptor antagonist.

NMDA receptors are important for synaptic plasticity, including long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD). To help investigate the precise location of the NMDA receptors that are required for different types of synaptic plasticity, we synthesized a caged form of the use-dependent NMDA receptor antagonist MK801, which we loaded into individual neurons in vitro, followed by compartment-specific uncaging. We used this method to investigate timing-dependent plasticity at layer 4-layer 2/3 synapses of mouse barrel cortex.