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IMAGE: A schematic visualization of the ferritin nanoparticle with shortened coronavirus spike proteins, which is the basis of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate from Stanford. view more
Credit: Duo Xu
Before the pandemic, the lab of Stanford University biochemist Peter S. Kim focused on developing vaccines for HIV, Ebola and pandemic influenza. But, within days of closing their campus lab space as part of COVID-19 precautions, they turned their attention to a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Although the coronavirus was outside the lab s specific area of expertise, they and their collaborators have managed to construct and test a promising vaccine candidate.
New tool for watching and controlling neural activity
A new molecular probe from Stanford University could help reveal how our brains think and remember. This tool, called Fast Light and Calcium-Regulated Expression or FLiCRE (pronounced “flicker”), can be sent inside any cell to perform a variety of research tasks, including tagging, recording and controlling cellular functions.
“This work gets at a central goal of neuroscience: How do you find the system of neurons that underlie a thought or cognitive process? Neuroscientists have been wanting this type of tool for a long time,” said Alice Ting, professor of genetics in the Stanford School of Medicine and of biology in the School of Humanities and sciences, whose team co-led this work with the lab of Stanford psychiatrist and bioengineer, Karl Deisseroth.
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A new molecular probe from Stanford University could help reveal how our brains think and remember. This tool, called Fast Light and Calcium-Regulated Expression or FLiCRE (pronounced flicker ), can be sent inside any cell to perform a variety of research tasks, including tagging, recording and controlling cellular functions. This work gets at a central goal of neuroscience: How do you find the system of neurons that underlie a thought or cognitive process? Neuroscientists have been wanting this type of tool for a long time, said Alice Ting, professor of genetics in the Stanford School of Medicine and of biology in the School of Humanities and sciences, whose team co-led this work with the lab of Stanford psychiatrist and bioengineer, Karl Deisseroth.
Neuroscientists have to choose between seeing the entire brain in low resolution or seeing a small piece of it in high resolution but a new technique known as FLARE could bring that dream one step closer to reality.
Whereas existing tagging techniques require hours to activate, the FLiCRE tagging process takes just minutes. The researchers also designed FLiCRE so that they can use standard genetic sequencing to find the cells in which FLiCRE activated. This allows them to study tens of thousands of cells at once, while other techniques tend to require the analysis of multiple microscopic images that each contain hundreds of cells.