Solving the Brain: Pioneering Tomorrow's Neurotechnologies

McGovern Investigator Ed Boyden gives a (virtual) talk to the MIT Club of Great Britain on February 25, 2021
Summary: To truly understand the healthy and diseased brain, we need technologies that map and control the brain with great precision. In the Synthetic Neurobiology Group at MIT’s McGovern Institute, our lab combines neurobiology, chemistry, engineering, and computer science to invent novel tools that push the boundaries of brain analysis and repair. In recent years, our group has pioneered a technique to physically expand brains through a chemical process that enables ultrahigh-resolution brain mapping. We discovered that molecules called opsins, when genetically expressed in neurons, can be used to control electrical activity in neurons with pulses of light. This technology, called optogenetics, is paving the way to repairing dysfunctional brain computations. Our group is also inventing new ways of imaging brain activity, revealing how signals within and between neurons work together to implement brain computations. This talk will explain how our lab creates and uses these tools in interdisciplinary and international collaborations to discover new principles of brain computation and new therapeutic strategies for detecting and treating brain disorders, including mental illnesses, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and beyond.