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Stanford’s Karl Deisseroth talks about the work he was “destined to do”

Earlier this week we announced the exciting news that Stanford bioengineer Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD, had won a $3 million 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. Before he took the stage to accept his award during a star-studded Academy Awards-like ceremony Sunday evening, the video above was shown to highlight the significance of his work. One of Deissoroth's quotes:

There are deep questions about the brain that may never be answered, but we're making headway with optogenetics... We're headed down a path that gets us to understanding [questions like] why does one person feel the way they do and why does it create a disease when they do a particular way, and what can be done to correct it?

Noting that the suffering of people with psychiatric disease "is a very, very serious and pervasive matter," he also says "the nature of the illnesses - their complexity, the amount of suffering and the mystery - has made this what I was destined to do."

Previously: Stanford bioengineer Karl Deisseroth wins 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Life SciencesInside the brain of optogenetics pioneer Karl DeisserothLightning strikes twice: Optogenetics pioneer Karl Deisseroth’s newest technique renders tissues transparent, yet structurally intact and An in-depth look at the career of Stanford’s Karl Deisseroth, “a major name in science”
Video courtesy of National Geographic Channel

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