![]() Another set of chemicals is used to turn these stem cells into neurons. Rather than taking a brain sample, they remove some of the person’s skin cells and grow them alongside chemicals that rewind the cells into an embryonic-like state. “It’s amazing that you can dispense with electrodes.” Brain in a dishĬohen’s team is using the technique to compare cells from typical brains with those from people with disorders such as motor neuron disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. “It’s pretty cool,” says Dimitri Kullmann of University College London. ![]() The new approach uses genes that make the neurons do the opposite – glow when they fire. The idea is a reverse form of optogenetics – where neurons are given a gene from bacteria that make a light-sensitive protein, so the cells fire when illuminated. “We get much more information – like how fast and where does it start and what happens at a branch.” “Now we see the whole thing sweep through,” says Adam Cohen of Harvard University. The new approach makes the neuron’s entire surface fluoresce as the impulse passes by. As well as being technically difficult, such “patch clamping” only reveals the voltage at those specific points. Until recently, a neuron’s electrical activity could only be measured with tiny electrodes.
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