Optical deconstruction of fully-assembled biological systems

Professor Deisseroth will address optical tools for precise, high-resolution investigation of intact biological systems, and application of these tools to study the neural circuit underpinnings of adaptive and maladaptive behavior. He has worked on developing and applying high-resolution tools for controlling (optogenetics.org) and mapping (clarityresourcecenter.org) specific well-defined elements within intact and fully-assembled biological systems. He continues to develop and apply these and other tools (integrated with optical, electrophysiological, computational, molecular, and behavioral approaches) for the study of neural physiology and behavior in freely-moving mammals. He is interested both in natural behaviorally-relevant neural circuit dynamics, and in pathological dynamics underlying neuropsychiatric disease symptomatology and treatment.