All-Optical Electrophysiology in the Brains of Behaving Animals

Cohen describes tools for simultaneous targeted optical perturbation and imaging of bioelectrical signals in live brains. These tools comprise molecular reagents that are currently available for non-commercial use, software that is available online, and custom instrumentation for which Cohen and his team are seeking a commercial partner.

As a result, the input-output properties of individual cells or microcircuits can be probed and then analyzed to understand how these units function in a behaving animal. Optical electrophysiology can reveal how the interactions of the molecular parts in the brain ultimately let it process information.

About the presenter
Adam Cohen, Ph.D., is a professor in the departments of chemistry, chemical biology, and physics at Harvard University. He develops tools to map bioelectrical signals in samples ranging from single bacteria to behaving mice to human stem cell-derived neurons from patients with neurological disorders.

Cohen has received the Sackler Prize in Chemistry, a Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, Blavatnik National Award in Chemistry, the American Chemical Society Pure Chemistry Award, and a Presidential Early Career Award from former President Barack Obama.

Cohen obtained doctorate degrees from Stanford University in experimental biophysics in 2007 and from the University of Cambridge in theoretical physics in 2003.