Benjamin Rost News Today

21/09/2023 - In addition to international guests, the festival has announced a record number of world and European premieres, a staggering 52 out of 148 films

Heating up Twitter feeds this week was a new commentary about a rarely discussed perspective on autism, talk about the use of optogenetics tools to manipulate ‘presynapses,’ a possible explanation for decision-making differences between the sexes, and a striking illustration of the human brain.

Weizmann Institute Optogeneticists Use Mosquito Rhodopsins to Boost Brain Research New versions of light-sensitive proteins could illuminate the dark corners of our brain’s communication pathways Weizmann Institute of Science Segment of a mouse brain. Red illuminated areas are communication pathways between neurons that express the mosquito-derived protein. In blue: cells’ nuclei Weizmann Institute of Science Illustration of the mosquito rhodopsin’s structure. Efficient and stable Pre...

Weizmann Institute of Science Can a protein found in a mosquito lead to a better understanding of the workings of our own brains? Prof. Ofer Yizhar and his team in the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Neurobiology Department took a light-sensitive protein derived from mosquitos and used it to devise an improved method for investigating the messages that are passed from neuron to neuron in the brains of mice. This method, reported today in Neuron, could potentially help scientists solve age-old...

Can a protein found in a mosquito lead to a better understanding of the workings of our own brains? Prof. Ofer Yizhar and his team in the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Neurobiology Department took a light-sensitive protein derived from mosquitos and used it to devise an improved method for investigating the messages that are passed from neuron to neuron in the brains of mice. This method, reported today in Neuron, could potentially help scientists solve age-old cerebral mysteries that coul...