Since 2004, we have been developing a technology we call optogenetics, in which we adapt microbial opsin genes (along with
optical, electrophysiological, computational, molecular, and behavioral methods) to build an integrated approach for versatile
millisecond-precision control over defined elements of neural circuits, in living tissue and freely-moving animals.
Recently we have begun linking these control (input) tools to increasingly sophisticated readouts that report back from the
controlled tissue with information on neural circuit activity and structure.
We are also applying these tools to address fundamental questions in neural circuit dynamics, both under normal conditions of operation and in the setting of neurological and psychiatric disease models.
Our laboratory is based in the Bioengineering Department in the basement of the James H. Clark Center at Stanford. We also operate an optogenetics training and educational facility (the Optogenetics Innovation Laboratory), which we built on the second floor of the Clark Center with support from the BioX program at Stanford.
KD is also an inpatient and outpatient attending physician in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; he treats patients with medications and high-speed neural stimulation methods such as transcranial magnetic stimulation.
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