Principal Investigator Edward Boyden
Co-investigator Clifton Fonstad
A new MINT (McGovern Institute Neurotechnology program) award will support a collaboration between Professor Boyden in the MIT Media Lab and Professor Fonstad in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science to develop new devices for optical control of neural activity. Boyden, an associate member of the McGovern Institute, has been a pioneer in the development of optogenetics, a technology in which light-sensitive ion channels are expressed in target neurons, allowing their activity to be controlled by light. The approach has great promise for research and clinical applications, but to take full advantage of this potential, better methods are needed for delivering bright light to target neurons within the brain. Fonstad, an expert on optoelectronics, plans to work with Boyden to build miniature implantable devices that can deliver light to precise locations deep within the brain and record electrical activity at the same target locations. If successful, this approach could open the door to a new generation of therapies based on light activation of specific brain circuits.