Viral Vectors 101: The AAV Retrograde Serotype

By Multiple Authors

Recent Posts

New Neuroscience Tool: The iGluSnFR3 Glutamate Sensor

Multiple Authors April 7, 2022

This post was originally written by Tyler Ford in 2018. It was updated by guest blogger Abhi Aggarwal in 2022. Recent updates to iGluSnFR and SF-iGluSnFR have made it clear that it’s time to update our iGluSnFR post! Here, we look at the origins of the system and explore ...

Chemogenetics

GPCRs: How Do They Work and How Do We Study Them?

Various Addgenies February 11, 2021

This article was written by Alyssa Cecchetelli and Andrew Hempstead. What do smell, taste and sight have in common, besides being one of the five senses? GPCRs or G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs)! Aside from these three senses, GPCRs play roles in initiating signaling ...

GPCR signaling schematic shows ligand binding the receptor which interacts with the gamma, beta, and alpha subunits below. These subunits split off when activated and results in a cellular response

Optogenetics

Channelrhodopsins with improved light sensitivity for minimally-invasive optogenetics

Beth Kenkel November 3, 2020

Optogenetics is a neuroscience method that lets you fire neurons with the flick of a light switch. Neurons are not typically persuaded to fire when light is shined on them, but the expression of light-gated ion channels such as channelrhodopsins (ChRs) makes them ...

Graphic of channelrhodopsin activated with blue light. Without light, the channelrhodopsin is inactive, no ions flow in, and neurons don't fire. With blue light, the channelrhodopsin opens and allows an influx of ions into the neuron. This results in neuronal firing.

Viral Vectors

Deciphering the Mysteries of Behavior with Viral Vectors

Klaus Wanisch September 17, 2019

Over the past decades, neuroscientists have made great strides to map brain regions and allocate specific functions to them. Electrical recordings and lesioning studies have been essential for this task. However, most lesioning methods destroy areas larger than intended and may ...

Viral Vectors

Getting Started with Behavioral Neuroscience: Standardizing Experiments and Using Viral Vectors

Klaus Wanisch August 20, 2019

The aim of behavioral neuroscience is to define brain areas that are linked to a certain behavior. It is a very old branch of science, dating back several hundred years, with historical ties to psychology and philosophy (the mind-body problem). Because of the availability of ...

CRISPR

New Tools Enable CRISPRa for Neuroscience Applications

Guest Blogger July 2, 2019

This post was contributed by Patrick Miller-Rhodes, a Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Predoctoral Fellow at University of Rochester Medical Center. During development, complex genetic programs specify and assemble diverse arrays of neurons, forming the neuronal circuits that will later ...

Fluorescent Proteins

Multicolor Animals: Using Fluorescent Proteins to Understand Single Cell Behavior

Aliyah Weinstein March 5, 2019

Stochastic multicolor labeling is a popular technique in neuroscience and developmental biology. This type of cell labeling technique involves the introduction of a transgene construct containing fluorescent proteins (XFP) of different colors to label an organ or entire ...