The ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), crizotinib, shows significant activity in patients whose lung cancers harbor ALK fusions but its efficacy is limited by variable primary responses and acquired resistance. In work arising from the intriguing clinical observation of a patient with ALK fusion+ lung cancer who had an ‘exceptional response’ to an IGF-1R antibody, we define a therapeutic synergism between ALK and IGF-1R inhibitors. Similar to IGF-1R, ALK fusion proteins bind to the adaptor, IRS-1, and IRS-1 knockdown enhances the anti-tumor effects of ALK inhibitors. In models of ALK TKI resistance, the IGF-1R pathway is activated, and combined ALK/IGF-1R inhibition improves therapeutic efficacy. Consistent with this finding, IGF-1R/IRS-1 levels are increased in biopsy samples from patients progressing on crizotinib therapy. Collectively, these data support a role for the IGF-1R/IRS-1 pathway in both ALK TKI-sensitive and TKI-resistant states and provide biological rationale for further clinical development of dual ALK/IGF-1R inhibitors.

We describe a method of obtaining optical sectioning with a standard wide-field fluorescence microscope. The method involves acquiring two images, one with nonuniform illumination (in our case, speckle) and another with uniform illumination (in our case, randomized speckle). An evaluation of the local contrast in the speckle-illumination image provides an optically sectioned image with low resolution. This is complemented with high-resolution information obtained from the uniform-illumination image. A fusion of both images leads to a full resolution image that is optically sectioned across all spatial frequencies. This hybrid illumination method is fast, robust, and generalizable to a variety of illumination and imaging configurations.

We present a simple wide-field imaging technique, called HiLo microscopy, that is capable of producing optically sectioned images in real time, comparable in quality to confocal laser scanning microscopy. The technique is based on the fusion of two raw images, one acquired with speckle illumination and another with standard uniform illumination. The fusion can be numerically adjusted, using a single parameter, to produce optically sectioned images of varying thicknesses with the same raw data. Direct comparison between our HiLo microscope and a commercial confocal laser scanning microscope is made on the basis of sectioning strength and imaging performance. Specifically, we show that HiLo and confocal 3-D imaging of a GFP-labeled mouse brain hippocampus are comparable in quality. Moreover, HiLo microscopy is capable of faster, near video rate imaging over larger fields of view than attainable with standard confocal microscopes. The goal of this paper is to advertise the simplicity, robustness, and versatility of HiLo microscopy, which we highlight with in vivo imaging of common model organisms including planaria, C. elegans, and zebrafish.

The fundamentally stochastic nature of neuronal growth has hardly been addressed in neuroscience. We report on the stochastic fluctuations of a neuronal growth cone's leading edge movement, the basic step in neuronal growth. Describing the edge movement as a stochastic bistable process leads to an isotropic noise parameter that is successfully used to test the model. An analysis of growth cone motility confirms the model, and predicts that linear changes of the bistable potential, as known from stochastic filtering, result in directed growth cone translocation.

We present an endomicroscope apparatus that exhibits out-of-focus background rejection based on wide-field illumination through a flexible imaging fiber bundle. Our technique, called HiLo microscopy, involves acquiring two images, one with grid-pattern illumination and another with standard uniform illumination. An evaluation of the image contrast with grid-pattern illumination provides an optically sectioned image with low resolution. This is complemented with high-resolution information from the uniform illumination image, leading to a full-resolution image that is optically sectioned. HiLo endomicroscope movies are presented of fluorescently labeled rat colonic mucosa.