Feng Zhang
Feng Zhang
Feng Zhangis the W. M. Keck Career Development Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also has appointments with the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvardand the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. He is most well known for playing a central role in the development of optogenetics and CRISPR technologies...
html language protected web wide
If someone had protected the HTML language for making Web pages, then we wouldn't have the World Wide Web.
cells normally proteins sensitive shining specific types
Brain cells are normally not sensitive to light. So by introducing light-sensitive proteins into specific types of neurons, we can now selectively control that specific type of neuron by shining light in the brain.
There may be an evolutionary advantage for schizophrenia genes during famine.
applied humans
There are still many challenges and questions that need to be addressed before optogenetics can be applied in humans for therapeutic uses.
circuits cognitive disease function identify involved labs learning neurons normal processes specific studies
Studies by many labs have already started to identify specific circuits of neurons involved in normal cognitive function like memory and learning, as well as disease processes such as Parkinson's disease, depression, and autism.
alter cells helps ideal individual neurons property realize study types
The ideal way to study the property of different types of neurons is to control individual types of cells independently and see what happens when you alter one type of cell. Optogenetics helps to realize this goal.