CITRIS researcher Mircea Teodorescu, a professor of bioengineering at UC Santa Cruz, has collaborated with researchers from UC San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley to publish a study in Nature Neuroscience detailing the foundations of a potential new treatment for epilepsy.
Using a technique known as optogenetics, the multicampus team delivered light-sensitive genes from microorganisms to a specific set of neurons in the brain that can be switched on and off with pulses of light, demonstrating an ability to control and prevent seizure-like activity in neurons.
Teodorescu, co-senior author of the study, designed a remote-control system to record the neurons’ electrical activity and deliver light pulses to the tissue. This allowed researchers to control the system without being in the room where the living tissue was kept, a critical consideration for preserving the tissue long enough to conduct the experiments.
The study’s findings open a gateway to less invasive treatment alternatives to brain tissue removal surgery and possess promising applications towards other neurological diseases. Researchers have also gained new insight into what causes a seizure, thanks to the unprecedented precision of the study’s recordings.
“This was a very unique collaboration to solve an incredibly complex research problem,” said Teodorescu. “The fact that we actually accomplished this feat shows how much farther we can reach when we bring the strengths of our institutions together.”