Treatments for neurological and psychiatric disease are limited by our understanding of the brain's inner workings. A pathbreaking new method promises profound advances. Stanford scientists are able to excite or silence specific brain cells in freely moving animals using light. "Optogenetics" was developed with help from seed funding through NeuroVentures, a new undertaking within Stanford's Bio-X interdisciplinary biosciences program. Now researchers in numerous fields are applying the technique, which could one day lead to new treatments for Alzheimer's, depression, and other diseases.
