Synthetic Neurobiology: Delivering Information Into the Brain, to Augment Neural Computations
4:10-4:35 pm, October 3
The brain is three-dimensional and densely-wired with billions of heterogeneous computational primitives. Understanding how these elements work in real time to mediate behavior and consciousness, and how they are compromised in neural pathology, is a top priority. We have recently revealed methods for real-time optical activation and silencing of specific cell types in the brain, using naturally-occurring molecular sensitizers such as channelrhodopsin-2 and halorhodopsin. Building off of these molecular tools, we have created optical hardware and algorithms for systematically testing the contribution of brain regions, cell types, and circuit connections to behavioral functions, and to inputting information into the brain. We are also working on noninvasive methods of information delivery to the brain. We discuss the application of these technologies to the analysis of neural dynamics, as well as to translation for new treatments for human disease, and eventually towards augmentation of the human condition.
Biographies: Ed Boyden
Ed Boyden is the Benesse Career Development Professor at the MIT Media Lab, and Assistant Professor of Biological Engineering and of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He leads the Synthetic Neurobiology Group, which aims to discover principles for systematically repairing intractable brain disorders such as epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, and schizophrenia. In order to accomplish this, his group invents new tools for controlling and repairing the computations performed by brain circuits. He and his colleagues have developed molecular reagents and devices that enable specific neurons in the brain to be activated and silenced with light, in order to correct their activity. He has launched an award-winning series of classes at MIT that take students from learning the principles of neuroengineering, all the way to starting companies in the nascent neurotechnology space. For his work, he was named to the "Top 35 Innovators Under the Age of 35" by Technology Review in 2006, selected to the Discovery Science Channel's "Top 5 Best Science Moments" in 2007, and elected to the "Top 20 Brains Under Age 40" by Discover Magazine in 2008. He has received the NIH Director's New Innovator Award, the Society for Neuroscience Research Award for Innovation in Neuroscience, and many other honors for his scientific and engineering accomplishments, as well as his leadership in the growing field of neuroengineering. Ed received his PhD in neurosciences from Stanford University as a Hertz Fellow, where he discovered that the molecular mechanisms used to store a memory are determined by the content to be learned. Before, he received three degrees in electrical engineering and physics from MIT. To date, he has over 100 papers, patents, and pending patents, has given over 50 invited talks, and regularly writes for Technology Review magazine.
