Scientists may have just revolutionized the way experiments will be done in the future by finding a way to implant a wireless device that can stimulate the brain of a mouse.
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According to an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the university, Ada Poon, the innovation is a new way of utilizing wireless technology for the objective of optogenetics and that by being smaller it is giving scientists more options on the way they conduct experiments.
For those who are not familiar with optogenetics, it is branch of science that uses light to control activities in the brain. With this restrictive headgear, mice cannot navigate an enclosed space or burrow into a pile of sleeping cage-mates the way an unencumbered mouse could.
“This is a new way of delivering wireless power for optogenetics”, Poon said in a press release. There is an additional challenge, too, in that a researcher needs to handle the mouse in order to attach the headgear in the first place, before they can even begin any form of experimentation. She met Logan Grosenick at the event and gathered other collaborators through follow-up conversations.
Poon and her colleagues clarified further that optogenetics works only with those nerves that are prepared particularly to house proteins responsive to light.
The researchers already had a light source but the problem was powering the device without losing power efficiency. In this way, the mouse becomes its own localizing device for power delivery. What other labs had to do is to attach a series of coils with sensors to the mouse’s head. She worked with Yuji Tanabe in Japan to create a chamber that will amplify and store the energy they need to power the device. A grid was overlaid on top of the chamber with holes that were smaller than the wavelength of the energy contained within. But now that the device has finally taken shape, every movement of the mouse results in contact with energy that is drawn in to help keep the device powered. This novel method of delivering power allowed the researchers to create a device small enough to be implanted under the skin.
Additionally, researchers also opine that the present study holds potential for several other applications in future and those applications could also involve experiments focused on improving mental disorders, mobility disorders and organ disease.
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Other authors include: Scott Delp, Karl Deisseroth, Emily Ferenczi, Shrivats Mohan Iyer, Vivien Tsao, John Ho, Alexander Yeh and Kate Montgomery.
