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NeuroNex Technology Conference

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Wednesday, July 18 and Thursday, July 19, 2018
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

The goal of the NSF NeuroNex initiative is to clear major technological hurdles in order to better study and understand the brain. Thank you to those who who made the 2018 NeuroNex Technology Conference possible. Please stay tuned for next year’s details. Co-organizers: Chris Xu, Joe Fetcho, Mert Sabuncu, Chris Schaffer, and Nilay Yapici. For details please visit: http://neuronex.cornell.edu

Gerald Rubin to speak at Cornell Neurotech seminar, Sept. 24, 2021 4PM

The  annual Cornell Neurotech Mong Family Foundation Seminar will feature Gerald M. Rubin. The seminar will be held in G10 Biotechnology on Sept. 23, 2021 at 4pm. The seminar title will be:

Generating and using wiring diagrams of brain: Lessons from the Drosophila connectome

Gerald Rubin is a Senior Group Leader at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Janelia Research Campus. He is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Genetics, Emeritus, at University of California Berkeley. His early work pioneered tools for germ line transformation using P-element transposons in the fruit fly Drosophila. This and other genetic tools allowed him to reveal signaling pathways downstream of tyrosine kinases. He went on to lead the project to sequence the fly genome. In recent years he has focused on revealing principles of how the brain gathers, stores and processes information. Rubin and his team develop advanced tools and methods to find, map, and analyze the neuronal circuits underlying learning, memory, sleep regulation, visual perception, and female-female aggression in Drosophila.

3-photon imaging of mouse brain activity is published in Nature Methods

3-photon imaging of mouse brain activity is published in Nature Methods

 

Dimitre G Ouzounov, Tianyu Wang, et al.  record spontaneous activity from up to 150 neurons in the hippocampal stratum pyramidale at ~1-mm depth within an intact mouse brain.

Using three-photon microscopy at 1,300-nm excitation, the authors of a recently published Nature Methods paper, demonstrated that functional imaging of GCaMP6s-labeled neurons can be achieved beyond the depth of two-photon microscopy. The method creates opportunities for noninvasive recording of neuronal activity with high spatial and temporal resolution deep within scattering brain tissues.

More on the lab

Nature Methods Paper – pdf

 

 

Neurotech symposium on the brain spotlights new discoveries

Researchers plumbing the mysteries of the brain gathered to share their discoveries at the inaugural Cornell Neurotech Mong Family Foundation Symposium, Sept. 29 in the Biotechnology Building.

The daylong symposium featured three of the winners of the prestigious Brain Prize – Winfried Denk, Ph.D. ’89; Karel Svoboda ’88; and David Tank, M.S. ’80, Ph.D. ’83 – all graduates of Professor Emeritus Watt Webb’s applied physics laboratory. The three built on their work in the Webb lab to develop multiphoton microscopy as an essential tool in brain research, allowing observation of minute brain structures and dynamic brain functions in real time.

Provost Michael Kotlikoff began the day with thanks for the “extraordinary generosity” of the Mong Family Foundation, guided by Stephen Mong ’92, M.Eng. ’93, MBA ’02, which enabled the university to launch Cornell Neurotech and sponsored the symposium. Cornell Neurotech’s efforts to understand how the brain produces behavior, thoughts and feelings “are vital goals with life-changing implications, and I am grateful to Stephen Mong and the Mong Family Foundation for enabling Cornell faculty and staff to strive toward them,” Kotlikoff said.

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