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April 03 Optogenetics It is a dream for neuroscientists to control the activity of a specific neuron in a living animal. Now the dream is closer with the emerging filed – optogenetics, which combines the powerful optics and genetics to visualize and stimulate nervous system.
Here are a few pioneers of this field:
July 23 Modulate Neural Activity in vivo In order to understand how the neural circuits contribute to behavior, we need to elucidate the role of specific type of neurons within that system. Just like we mutate the protein to understand its role, we can also modulate the activity of specific neuron to study its function. Genetic strategies have given great promise to this goal (1). Four years ago, Callaway's group developed an in vitro method that can rapidly and reversibly inactivate neuron activity (2). In this issue of Neuron, the same group furthered their method to in vivo study (3). They use adeno-associated viral vectors to express Drosophila allatostatin receptor (AlstR) in specific neurons (this specificiy is achieved by cell-type specific promoters). This receptor, when binded with its ligand, allatostatin (AL), will open G-protein-mediated inwardly rectifying K+ (GIRK) channels and the increased K+ conductance causes neuronal inactivation. The neural activity can be recovered by washing away the allatostatin. This might be a very useful method to study neural circuits.
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