For decades, scientists have fantasized about whether light, if properly harnessed, could be used to turn neurons on or off as a way to study behavior, understand decision-making and even treat disease.
In 1999, Nobel laureate Francis Crick described the idea as far-fetched, but conceivable.
Twenty years later, on Oct. 3, the Warren Alpert Foundation celebrated the four scientists who realized this far-fetched ideaEdward Boyden, Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Gero Miesenbck, who together share the 2019 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize for their seminal contributions to the field of optogenetics.
Get more HMS news here
Today, the techniquewhich involves genetically modifying neurons to express light-sensitive proteins originally isolated from algaeallows neuroscientists to control the activity of neurons with unprecedented power and precision, simply by exposing them to light.
Taken together, these discoveries have fundamentally reshaped the landscape of modern neuroscience, said George Q. Daley, dean of Harvard Medical School, in his welcoming remarks at the 2019 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize Symposium.
They have set the stage for optogenetics-based therapies that could, one day, be used to restore vision loss, preserve movement following spinal cord injury or modulate circuits that fuel anxiety and depression, and many other applications, Daley said.
More than three decades ago, entrepreneur and philanthropist Warren Alpert established a foundation to recognize scientists whose research and achievements promised to revolutionize how we understand, diagnose and treat disease.
Since then, the Warren Alpert Prize, administered by the Warren Alpert Foundation and HMS, has awarded nearly $5 million to 69 scientists, 10 of whom have gone on to receive Nobel prizes.
Curiosity and wonder
The four pioneers of optogenetics now join this prestigious group. At the symposium held in their honor, they each presented short scientific lectures spanning different facets of a technique that has changed how we study the brain.
Peter Hegemann, the Hertie professor of neuroscience at Humboldt University of Berlin, presented on his current research and on the history of the development of optogenetics, which can be traced to more than a century ago, when scientists first observed that algae could sense light and move in response. Hegemann emphasized the importance of curiosity and wonder in scientific research and the beauty of unpredictability in science.
Edward Boyden, the Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology at MIT, associate professor of media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab and an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, spoke about his efforts to develop next-generation optogenetic tools, such as expansion microscopy, to map, control and observe the brain to better understand its function.
Gero Miesenbck, the Waynflete Professor of Physiology and director of the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, presented his work using optogenetic and other approaches to unravel the mystery of the brains sleep-control systems and build a molecular interpretation of the cellular processes involved.
Karl Deisseroth, the D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, spoke on his efforts to better understand the rhodopsin light-sensitive proteins at the heart of optogenetics. Insights into the inner workings of these proteins are allowing scientists to modify them and expand the power and scope of what optogenetics-based research can achieve.
Deisseroth, like Hegemann, also emphasized the value of basic science.
All the exciting advances weve made in understanding the brain and mammalian behavior and neural circuits across biology, is in many ways deeply rooted in botany and the basic science of studying plants, he said.
Also presenting at the symposium were junior researchers who spoke about how they are applying optogenetics to answer fundamental questions about the brain.
Kimberly Reinhold, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Sabatini lab in the Department of Neurobiology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS, discussed her research into the neural circuits involved in reward-learning.
Charlotte Arlt, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Harvey lab in the Department of Neurobiology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS, spoke about her work investigating the neural circuits involved in trial-and-error learning and spatial decision-making.
Optogenetics is credited, rightfully so, with bringing neuroscience into the realm of causal experimentation, said symposium moderator Bernardo Sabatini, the Alice and Rodman W. Moorhead III Professor of Neurobiology at HMS.
It has enabled basic discoveries of the brain that have led to new ways to study and treat neuropsychiatric disease, and in the future its possible that other conditions, such as blindness and paralysis, could be addressed with optogenetic manipulations of the brain, he said.
The four people honored today took this far-fetched idea and made it a reality, Sabatini said.
Photos by Gretchen Ertl
The rest is here:
Lighting the Way | Harvard Medical School - Harvard Medical School
- "Shift Happens" - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Getting Started With Your Personal Statement - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- I started this blog 1 year ago. I'm ready to become a medical doctor. - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Poll Results: "What is your GPA?" - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Why Ross University School of Medicine? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Why Ross University? (Continued) - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Filling out applications with the last 4 years in mind. - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- "Active and Passive Euthanasia" - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- 300 Word Personal Statement - First Draft - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- 300 Word Personal Statement - 2nd Draft - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- "Where did you do EMT training at?" - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- "is this jonathan that went to brazil in the summer of 2006?" - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- First Application is Away - Ross University - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- AMCAS—The American Medical College Application Service - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Student Doctor Network - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Crime Incident - Public Safety Announcement: STUDENTS - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- AMCAS Deadlines & Delays - Answered - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Headstart on Secondary Applications - The Student Doctor Network - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Complete Medical School & Admissions Guide - Revisited - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Interview Status - Ross University - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Finished my first interview. - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- "You have a 95% chance of acceptance..." - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- "I was just wondering if I have to go to medical school i will have to start college allover again." - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Interview Feedback - Allopathic Medical Schools - Ross University School of Medicine (Dominica Caribbean) - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- ACCEPTED! - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Step 1 Revisited - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- A Few More Thoughts On Moving - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Update - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Closing In - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Internet/Computer Hell - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Back On The Net - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- 1 More Day - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Loan Deferment Blog - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Graduated! - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- What Happened? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Interesting Case - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- What Made Me Stupid? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Blah. - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Call - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Medicine in the Media - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Was Medical School Worth It? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Off I Go... - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Is It Worth It, Part 2 - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Oriented - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- GLBT in Medical School - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- GLBT in Residency Applications - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- I Survived - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Reflections on the First Week - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- All Good Things Must End - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Lone Coyote is Back - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Pre-med student switches gears to teach in Chicago school - Chicago Tribune - March 8th, 2010 [March 8th, 2010]
- Old-school barbecue coming to spot near Fort Worth medical district - Fort Worth Star Telegram - March 8th, 2010 [March 8th, 2010]
- Nursing home drug use puts many at risk - Boston Globe - March 8th, 2010 [March 8th, 2010]
- Dr. Anita Figueredo, first female surgeon in San Diego, dies at 93 - Los Angeles Times - March 8th, 2010 [March 8th, 2010]
- Stimulus funds pay for monkey research in NC - MiamiHerald.com - March 8th, 2010 [March 8th, 2010]
- Medicine as an economic engine - Buffalo News - March 8th, 2010 [March 8th, 2010]
- UM medical school feels the squeeze - MiamiHerald.com - March 8th, 2010 [March 8th, 2010]
- HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL ADVISER Bell's palsy not as serious as it appears - Detroit Free Press - March 8th, 2010 [March 8th, 2010]
- Baylor medical school works to get back on track - Houston Chronicle - March 8th, 2010 [March 8th, 2010]
- From community college to Amherst College and Yale Medical School - WalletPop (blog) - March 8th, 2010 [March 8th, 2010]
- Man questions merit of coke monkey study - UPI.com - March 8th, 2010 [March 8th, 2010]
- School Board has questions it wants answered about onsite medical clinic - Terre Haute Tribune Star - March 9th, 2010 [March 9th, 2010]
- Stimulus Funds Pay for Monkey Research - NewsMax.com - March 9th, 2010 [March 9th, 2010]
- Babylon schools head: Teen's collapse unrelated to athletics - Newsday (subscription) - March 9th, 2010 [March 9th, 2010]
- Cost Of Medical School Rises In Recession - NPR - March 9th, 2010 [March 9th, 2010]
- Flu Shots in Children Help People of All Ages - New York Times - March 9th, 2010 [March 9th, 2010]
- A prescription for improving science education - Scope (blog) - March 9th, 2010 [March 9th, 2010]
- Live kidney donors do not die sooner: study - Reuters - March 9th, 2010 [March 9th, 2010]
- UW football player suspended after alleged assault - Seattle Post Intelligencer - March 10th, 2010 [March 10th, 2010]
- More Comparative Studies Needed to Guide Physicians Study finds less than a ... - ModernMedicine - March 10th, 2010 [March 10th, 2010]
- Conservationists worry about Mo. med school plan - KOAM-TV - March 10th, 2010 [March 10th, 2010]
- Dr. William D. Lynn - Baltimore Sun - March 10th, 2010 [March 10th, 2010]
- Suspect in North Dallas shootings became reclusive after parents died, family says - Dallas Morning News - March 10th, 2010 [March 10th, 2010]
- Drinkers Gain Less Weight - Harvard Crimson - March 10th, 2010 [March 10th, 2010]
- Long-Term Health Risks Low for Kidney Donors - WebMD - March 10th, 2010 [March 10th, 2010]
- School resource officer remains in critical condition - Middletown Journal - March 10th, 2010 [March 10th, 2010]
- New Lucian Leape Institute Report Finds That U.S. Medical Schools Are Falling ... - PR Newswire (press release) - March 10th, 2010 [March 10th, 2010]
- Dual degrees program expands for Mayo Medical School students - Post-Bulletin - March 10th, 2010 [March 10th, 2010]
- Comparative Effectiveness Research is a Must - TopNews United States - March 10th, 2010 [March 10th, 2010]
- Long Beach OKs medical pot ordinance - Contra Costa Times - March 10th, 2010 [March 10th, 2010]