BiotechMashup

(Georgia Institute of Technology Research News) Researchers are using inexpensive LCD projectors to control the brain and muscles of tiny organisms, including freely moving worms. This technology advances the field of optogenetics, which has given researchers unparalleled control over brain circuits in laboratory animals.

Researchers are using inexpensive LCD projectors to control the brain and muscles of tiny organisms, including freely moving worms. This technology advances the field of optogenetics, which has given researchers unparalleled control over brain circuits in laboratory animals.

(Ruhr-University Bochum) Controlling nerve cells with the aid of light: this is made possible by optogenetics. It enables, for example, the investigation of neurobiological processes with unprecedented spatial and temporal precision. The key tool of optogenetics is the light-activated protein channelrhodopsin. Biophysicists from Bochum and Berlin have now succeeded in explaining the switching mechanism through an interdisciplinary approach. The researchers report on their findings in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Biologists have developed an MRI-based technique that allows researchers to non-invasively follow neural stem cells in vivo. The recently patented technology could be used to further the study of neural stem cells and inform the development of new treatments for brain injury caused by trauma, stroke, Parkinson's disease and other neurological disorders.

Scientists who proved it is possible to cultivate a network of brain cells that reconnect on a silicon chip -- or the brain on a microchip -- have been involved in the development of new technology that monitors brain cell activity at a resolution never achieved before.

(National Science Foundation) Neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a powerful new class of tools to reversibly shut down brain activity using different colors of light. When targeted to specific neurons, they could potentially lead to new treatments for abnormal brain activity associated with disorders including chronic pain, epilepsy, brain injury and Parkinson's disease.

Neuroscientists have developed a powerful new class of tools to reversibly shut down brain activity using different colors of light. When targeted to specific neurons, they could potentially lead to new treatments for abnormal brain activity associated with disorders including chronic pain, epilepsy, brain injury and Parkinson's disease.

Controlling nerve cells with the aid of light: this is made possible by optogenetics. It enables, for example, the investigation of neurobiological processes with unprecedented spatial and temporal precision. Biophysicists have now succeeded in explaining the switching mechanism.

(Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Neuroscientists at MIT have developed a powerful new class of tools to reversibly shut down brain activity using different colors of light. When targeted to specific neurons, these tools could potentially lead to new treatments for the abnormal brain activity associated with disorders such as chronic pain, epilepsy, brain injury and Parkinson's disease.