QnAs with Karl Deisseroth.
نویسنده
چکیده
When Karl Deisseroth, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, recently set out to improve a trustymolecular tool for finessing the activity of brain cells in living animals, he had nary a clue that nature had longanticipated his fastidious feat of engineering. Deisseroth, whose name has become nearly metonymous with optogenetics, a molecular technique for manipulating neurons using light, has developed exquisitely precise tools to probe brain function. Central to optogenetics are proteins called channelrhodopsins, ion-transporting channels found inmicroscopic algae.When slipped into neurons, the channels serve as light-activated switches to control brain function. Conceived as basic research tools, the channels have helped limn circuits involved in psychiatric and neurological conditions. In his PNAS Inaugural Article (1), Deisseroth and his collaborators describe how the previously unresolved power of channelrhodopsins can be unleashed to control animal behavior. Using insights from crystallography, his team has engineered improved and versatile channelrhodopsins, which are not onlymore potent than conventional channels but can dampen neuronal firing, unlike traditional counterparts that trigger it. More than a year after Deisseroth first unveiled the inhibitory channels, researchers reported a naturally occurring channel with a nearly identical design, revealing that nature had taken Deisseroth’s tack, but over the plodding course of evolution. A testament to his unerring instinct, the report proved to be a ringing endorsement of Deisseroth’s structure-guided engineering approach by a force no less than natural selection. Deisseroth, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, tells PNAS that inhibiting selected groups of neurons using the nextgeneration inhibitory channels may lead to a refined understanding of long-elusive aspects of mood and movement disorders.
منابع مشابه
Optical and chemical discoveries recognized for impact on biology and psychiatry
Karl Deisseroth was awarded the 2017 quadrennial 4 million euro Else Kröner Fresenius Prize today for the “discoveries of optogenetics and of hydrogel-tissue chemistry, and for developing circuit-level insight into depression”. In this opinion, he was invited to discuss the impact of optogenetics and hydrogel-tissue chemistry [1–10] on understanding the structure and function of the brain in he...
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عنوان ژورنال:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
دوره 113 14 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2016