This week, I spent most of my time in the lab. The goal of my project is to stop seizure via optogenetics. It is fun to design the experiment and establish the protocol for future experiments.
Optogenetics is an emerging tool to manipulate neural activities via optics. By genetically modifying the neurons to be light-sensitive, precise manipulation of neural activity can be achieved at a single-cell level. Seizure, on the other hand, is a sudden, uncontrolled electrical disturbance in the brain. It will cause changes in behavior, movements or feelings in the level of consciousness. In the experiment, we sought to stop the uncontrolled electrical disturbance via neural manipulation. Neuron silencing has been explored to control the seizure. However, the seizure cannot be stopped, rather, only the amplitude of the seizure is reduced. A different approach is used in the project to stop the seizure in the project. By implanting optical fiber and electrodes into the brain, the neural activity can be manipulated by light and brain activity can be monitored respectively. Several mice has been operated and chemicals will be injected to introduce seizure in the mouse.
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