"Lighting the brain," a recent New Yorker profile, offers insight into the brain of Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD, the well-known innovator of both optogenetics and CLARITY. (Optogenetics is a genetic engineering feat that allows researchers to control neurons in living animals using light. CLARITY is a technique that makes individual neural connections visible.)
Deisseroth, readers of the article learn, is a guy who shows up to his leading scientific laboratory wearing jeans and a t-shirt and who doesn't let a little fender bender tweak his mood.
Yes, he's brilliant. His ability to instantly memorize information morphed into a "circus act" of sorts when he was in elementary school. He began medical school at age 20. But, he's also driven and hard working. When optogenetics encountered early resistance and doubt after its initial publication in 2005, Deisseroth "began working furiously," the article states. Into work before 6 a.m., Deisseroth slaved over his brainchild often until 1 a.m., his wife, Michelle Monje, MD, PhD, reported.
It took a few more papers -- and demonstrations of the applicability of optogenetics to examine real diseases -- for the scientific community to catch on. But then, like a contagion of scientific glee, optogenetics rocked the neuroscience community.
Monje realized its popularity at a recent scientific conference:
"People were stopping us at the airport asking to take a picture with him, asking for autographs," she said. "He can't walk through the conference hall--there's a mob. It's like Beatlemania. I realized, I'm married to a Beatle. The nerdy Beatle."
For more on the "nerdy Beatle," and the science behind both optogenetics and CLARITY, check out the article for yourself. It's well worth your brain power.
Previously: Stanford's Karl Deisseroth awarded prestigious Albany Prize, Lightning strikes twice: Optogenetics pioneer Karl Deisseroth's newest technique renders tissues transparent, yet structurally intact and New York Times profiles Stanford's Karl Deisseroth and his work in optogenetics
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