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Jan 8, 2017

Light-activated neurons hold bright promise for brain science

Posted by in categories: genetics, neuroscience, science

As I stated earlier, another example where we will see a convergence of tech and bio especially as we emerge QC forward and synbio technology such as gene/ cell circuitry. My guess when we mature these fields along with minerals like diamonds/ gem crystalized formation and their use in QC tech, we will began to wonder why we didn’t figure this out sooner.


When Edward Boyden was helping develop a tool to turn neurons on and off with light at Stanford a decade ago, he had a strong feeling it would spread far and wide. Even so, he’s been surprised by how quickly its fame has come.

“What I hadn’t quite anticipated was how fast it would take off,” said Boyden, who now leads the MIT Media Lab’s synthetic neurobiology research group. “It was almost as if the field was ready for the technology.”

It certainly was. On Sunday, Boyden and Stanford neuroscientist Dr. Karl Deisseroth, whose lab Boyden worked in, each received $3 million Breakthrough Prizes for their work on optogenetics.

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