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Optogenetics

A mosquito on a notebook. Photo by Dr. Jonas Wietek
11.05.2021

New versions of light-sensitive proteins could illuminate the dark corners of our brain’s communication pathways 

synchronized signals in the cortex
25.05.2017

A decades-old debate on the way signals create perception is resolved

An entire mouse brain viewed from above: Neuronal extensions connect the two amygdalas
14.03.2017

Weakening communication between two parts of the brain in mice reduced their fear levels

Red and green dots reveal a region in the brain that that is very dense with synapses. A special fluorescent protein allows Dr. Ofer Yizhar and his group to record the activity of the synapses
16.03.2016

Targeting axons uncovers the brain's distance communications 

(l-r) Drs. Michael Yartsev and Nachum Ulanovsky
07.01.2014

Recent graduate Dr. Michael Yartsev is winning awards for his research at the Weizmann...

Mouse hippocampus containing two different types of channelrhodopsins. The green fluorescence marks axons entering into the hippocampal CA1 region, and the red fluorescence is expressed in the dentate gyrus part of the hippocampus (inverted V-shaped structure)
11.06.2012

Dr. Ofer Yizhar investigates the brain’s circuitry with tiny pulses of light