MIT’s Ed Boyden has the largest brain lab in the world, with 150 people.
Expansion microscopy is the opposite of normal microscopy. Instead of zooming in on the brain, you make the brain bigger with a polymer expansion similar to the gel found in super-absorbent diapers.
He showed the brain color coded from a virus payload for seeing different cells — a “brainbow.” Here is a video I took with him explaining all this.
More at expansionmicroscopy.org and his TED Talk.
He then spoke of Optogenetics, with light-activated ion channels.
Ed Boyden’s team can trigger brain activity at a targeted deep area with a pair of acoustic waves at close frequencies, like 2.00 and 2.01 Hz. And my video of that part of the talk.
This was just part of a fun weekend “brain spa” — the BrainMind Symposium at Stanford (and here are my notes on the talks).
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