Tools for analyzing and repairing complex biological systems
Edward Boyden, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Summary
The goal of the Boyden laboratory is to achieve ground truth understandings of complex biological systems, including entire cells and entire brains, and to use such insights to improve the human condition through novel inventions and therapeutics. To make this possible, Dr. Boyden and his colleagues are currently creating technologies that enable comprehensive observation and control of biological systems, aiming for molecular precision, millisecond resolution, and whole organ scale. These technologies include expansion microscopy, in which we physically magnify biological specimens to make them larger; lightfield imaging, a method for fast 3-D imaging with no moving parts; robots and nanotechnologies for in vivo neural recording; and optogenetics, a toolset for controlling neural activity with pulses of light. In this way we aim to enable the systematic mapping, dynamical observation, and control of complex biological systems like the brain.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, August 11, 2021