New advances vastly expand versatility of optogenetics brain-research technique
Thursday, March 18, 2010 - 11:42
in Health & Medicine
Recently, brain researchers have gained a powerful new way to troubleshoot neural circuits associated with depression, Parkinson's disease and other conditions in small animals such as rats. They use an optogenetics technology, invented at Stanford University, that precisely turns select brain cells on or off with flashes of light. Although useful, the optogenetics tool set has been limited.