Feng Zhang, a member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, is designing new molecular tools for manipulating the living brain. As a student, he played a major role in the development of optogenetics, a technology by which the brain’s electrical activity can be controlled with light-sensitive proteins. He is now working to […]
Warmest wishes this holiday season from your friends at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT.
New design technique could enable personalized medicine, studies of brain wiring.
John Gabrieli, a member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, uses brain imaging and behavioral tests to understand the organization of memory, thought, and emotion in the human brain. [Stock footage: pond5, Elekta Instrument AB] Read more about John Gabrieli here.
Guoping Feng, an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, studies the development and function of synapses and their disruption in brain disorders. He uses molecular genetics combined with behavioral and electrophysiological methods to study the molecular components of the synapse and to understand how disruptions in these components can lead to […]
James DiCarlo, an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, examines the complex network of brain regions that allow us to recognize vast numbers of objects rapidly and effortlessly. [Stock footage: pond5, Elekta Instrument AB] Read more about James DiCarlo here.
This animation illustrates optogenetics — a radical new technology for controlling brain activity with light.
McGovern researchers use optogeneticsto restore vision in blind mice.
Ed Boyden, a member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, develops new strategies for manipulating brain activity. He uses a wide variety of technologies to find new and more potent ways to alter brain function, for both research and therapeutic purposes. A major goal of his current work is to manipulate individual […]
Emilio Bizzi examines how the brain translates our general intentions into the detailed commands needed to control muscle movements. One of his key discoveries is that groups of muscles are activated synergistically by circuits of neurons in the spinal cord. He believes that these synergies represent the fundamental building blocks for assembling a repertoire of […]
