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Synthetic Neurobiology Group: Ed Boyden, Principal Investigator

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The brain is a three-dimensional, densely wired circuit that computes via sets of distributed cells signaling and interacting at fast timescales. In order to understand the brain, ideally it would be possible to observe the electrical activity, and other important intra- and intercellular signaling pathways, across many cells -- and ideally throughout entire brains -- with sufficient spatial and temporal precision to understand how they work together to mediate brain functions, and how they go wrong in brain diseases. We are developing a number of innovations -- such as new or improved fluorescent reporters of cellular signals such as voltage and calcium, ways to record neural activity and cellular signals into nucleic acid form (for later readout by sequencing), and new robotic and nanotechnological probes -- to enable such analyses of brain circuit dynamics and signals. We are also working on ways to use many fluorescent reporters at once, within single living cells, to record signal

Tools for mapping the molecules and structure of the brain

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