By Hannah Dotson
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In order to understand the complex wiring of the brain and the underpinnings of neurological disease, neuroscientists need to be able to probe cells and circuits without disrupting normal brain function. Chemogenetics has become a popular tool in the field as it provides a ...
The calcium is strong here….I can sense it….sound like a plot to an biology scifi movie? Or maybe it’s a biosensor?! You can do more than just ‘sense’ biological compounds and reactions; you can quantify them with biosensors! In this blog we will review the basics of biosensors ...
As an undergraduate student at Northeastern University, I am required to complete a six month work experience called a co-op to receive a degree. Northeastern compiles a list of hundreds of different jobs for students to apply to, and after a grueling two months of job hunting ...
In 2005, Boyden et al. described the first light-activated tool for controlling neuronal activity, channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2), a blue light-activated cation channel, from the archaebacteria Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. When exposed to blue light, this channel activates neuronal ...
Viruses have become a regular part of basic biological research as well as clinical therapy. These biological tools are useful because they’re derived from viruses that can infect people, cells, and animals. Some of these viruses are completely inert, but others can cause ...
Expansion Microscopy (ExM) promises an easier, more accessible way to image biological features previously only visible via techniques like super-resolution microscopy or electron microscopy. Since its introduction in 2015 by the Boyden Lab, ExM has been steadily growing in ...
If you study proteins, you’re probably quite interested in the canonical 20 amino acids. But in your quest to learn more about your protein of interest, you may find the available amino acids a bit…limiting. It may be time, then, to look towards genetic code expansion (GCE): ...
