{"128531":{"#nid":"128531","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Robot Reveals the Inner Workings of Brain Cells","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGaining access to the inner workings of a neuron in the living brain offers a wealth of useful information: its patterns of electrical activity, its shape, even a profile of which genes are turned on at a given moment. However, achieving this entry is such a painstaking task that it is considered an art form; it is so difficult to learn that only a small number of labs in the world practice it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut that could soon change: Researchers at MIT and the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a way to automate the process of finding and recording information from neurons in the living brain. The researchers have shown that a robotic arm guided by a cell-detecting computer algorithm can identify and record from neurons in the living mouse brain with better accuracy and speed than a human experimenter.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe new automated process eliminates the need for months of training and provides long-sought information about living cells\u2019 activities. Using this technique, scientists could classify the thousands of different types of cells in the brain, map how they connect to each other, and figure out how diseased cells differ from normal cells.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe project is a collaboration between the labs of Ed Boyden, associate professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, and \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.me.gatech.edu\/faculty\/forest.shtml\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ECraig Forest\u003C\/a\u003E, an assistant professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.me.gatech.edu\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EGeorge W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur team has been interdisciplinary from the beginning, and this has enabled us to bring the principles of precision machine design to bear upon the study of the living brain,\u201d Forest says. His graduate student, Suhasa Kodandaramaiah, spent the past two years as a visiting student at MIT, and is the lead author of the study, which appears in the May 6 issue of \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1038\/nmeth.1993\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003ENature Methods\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe method could be particularly useful in studying brain disorders such as schizophrenia, Parkinson\u2019s disease, autism and epilepsy, Boyden says. \u201cIn all these cases, a molecular description of a cell that is integrated with [its] electrical and circuit properties \u2026 has remained elusive,\u201d says Boyden, who is a member of MIT\u2019s Media Lab and McGovern Institute for Brain Research. \u201cIf we could really describe how diseases change molecules in specific cells within the living brain, it might enable better drug targets to be found.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAutomation\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKodandaramaiah, Boyden and Forest set out to automate a 30-year-old technique known as whole-cell patch clamping, which involves bringing a tiny hollow glass pipette in contact with the cell membrane of a neuron, then opening up a small pore in the membrane to record the electrical activity within the cell. This skill usually takes a graduate student or postdoc several months to learn.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKodandaramaiah spent about four months learning the manual patch-clamp technique, giving him an appreciation for its difficulty. \u201cWhen I got reasonably good at it, I could sense that even though it is an art form, it can be reduced to a set of stereotyped tasks and decisions that could be executed by a robot,\u201d he says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo that end, Kodandaramaiah and his colleagues built a robotic arm that lowers a glass pipette into the brain of an anesthetized mouse with micrometer accuracy. As it moves, the pipette monitors a property called electrical impedance \u2014 a measure of how difficult it is for electricity to flow out of the pipette. If there are no cells around, electricity flows and impedance is low. When the tip hits a cell, electricity can\u2019t flow as well and impedance goes up.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe pipette takes two-micrometer steps, measuring impedance 10 times per second. Once it detects a cell, it can stop instantly, preventing it from poking through the membrane. \u201cThis is something a robot can do that a human can\u2019t,\u201d Boyden says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOnce the pipette finds a cell, it applies suction to form a seal with the cell\u2019s membrane. Then, the electrode can break through the membrane to record the cell\u2019s internal electrical activity. The robotic system can detect cells with 90 percent accuracy, and establish a connection with the detected cells about 40 percent of the time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers also showed that their method can be used to determine the shape of the cell by injecting a dye; they are now working on extracting a cell\u2019s contents to read its genetic profile.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDevelopment of the new technology was funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the MIT Media Lab.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENew era for robotics\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers recently created a startup company, Neuromatic Devices, to commercialize the device.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers are now working on scaling up the number of electrodes so they can record from multiple neurons at a time, potentially allowing them to determine how different parts of the brain are connected.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThey are also working with collaborators to start classifying the thousands of types of neurons found in the brain. This \u201cparts list\u201d for the brain would identify neurons not only by their shape \u2014 which is the most common means of classification \u2014 but also by their electrical activity and genetic profile.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf you really want to know what a neuron is, you can look at the shape, and you can look at how it fires. Then, if you pull out the genetic information, you can really know what\u2019s going on,\u201d Forest says. \u201cNow you know everything. That\u2019s the whole picture.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBoyden says he believes this is just the beginning of using robotics in neuroscience to study living animals. A robot like this could potentially be used to infuse drugs at targeted points in the brain, or to deliver gene therapy vectors. He hopes it will also inspire neuroscientists to pursue other kinds of robotic automation \u2014 such as in optogenetics, the use of light to perturb targeted neural circuits and determine the causal role that neurons play in brain functions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENeuroscience is one of the few areas of biology in which robots have yet to make a big impact, Boyden says. \u201cThe genome project was done by humans and a giant set of robots that would do all the genome sequencing. In directed evolution or in synthetic biology, robots do a lot of the molecular biology,\u201d he says. \u201cIn other parts of biology, robots are essential.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOther co-authors include MIT grad student Giovanni Talei Franzesi and MIT postdoc Brian Y. Chow.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch News \u0026amp; Publications Office\u003Cbr \/\u003E Georgia Institute of Technology\u003Cbr \/\u003E 75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 314\u003Cbr \/\u003E Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMedia Relations Contacts:\u003C\/strong\u003E Abby Robinson (abby@innovate.gatech.edu; 404-385-3364) or Caroline McCall (cmccall5@mit.edu; 617-253-1682)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter: \u003C\/strong\u003EAnne Trafton, MIT News\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResearchers have automated the process of finding and recording information from neurons in the living brain. A robotic arm guided by a cell-detecting computer algorithm can identify and record from neurons in the living mouse brain with better accuracy and speed than a human experimenter.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers have automated the process of finding and recording information from neurons in the living brain."}],"uid":"27206","created_gmt":"2012-05-06 18:15:11","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:12:09","author":"Abby Vogel Robinson","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-05-06T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2012-05-06T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"128501":{"id":"128501","type":"image","title":"Craig Forest robotic neural recordings","body":null,"created":"1449178622","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:37:02","changed":"1475894751","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:51","alt":"Craig Forest robotic neural recordings","file":{"fid":"194578","name":"forest_autopatching_hires.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/forest_autopatching_hires_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/forest_autopatching_hires_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":775735,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/forest_autopatching_hires_0.jpg?itok=vdfef1_u"}},"128521":{"id":"128521","type":"image","title":"Whole-cell patching robot schematic","body":null,"created":"1449178622","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:37:02","changed":"1475894751","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:51","alt":"Whole-cell patching robot schematic","file":{"fid":"194580","name":"autopatching_schematic_hires.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/autopatching_schematic_hires_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/autopatching_schematic_hires_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":151885,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/autopatching_schematic_hires_0.jpg?itok=1ge0_Nkx"}},"128511":{"id":"128511","type":"image","title":"Neuromatic Devices research team","body":null,"created":"1449178622","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:37:02","changed":"1475894751","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:45:51","alt":"Neuromatic Devices research team","file":{"fid":"194579","name":"autopatching_team_hires.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/autopatching_team_hires_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/autopatching_team_hires_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1108663,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/autopatching_team_hires_0.jpg?itok=hvVbN3LH"}}},"media_ids":["128501","128521","128511"],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1912","name":"brain"},{"id":"32681","name":"brain cell"},{"id":"594","name":"college of engineering"},{"id":"12333","name":"Craig Forest"},{"id":"32711","name":"electrical activity"},{"id":"7276","name":"neuron"},{"id":"1304","name":"neuroscience"},{"id":"32691","name":"patch clamp"},{"id":"1356","name":"robot"},{"id":"667","name":"robotics"},{"id":"167377","name":"School of Mechanical Engineering"},{"id":"32701","name":"whole-cell patch clamping"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAbby Robinson\u003Cbr \/\u003E Research News and Publications\u003Cbr \/\u003E \u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:abby@innovate.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Eabby@innovate.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E 404-385-3364\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}