Ed Boyden has been figuring out how to control brains with light since the birth of the field of optogenetics, just over a decade ago, and he continues to develop new “genetic solar cells” that may someday be used to treat brain disease or control brain function. In his article, "The Birth of Optogenics," he gives a first-person account of the emergence of this exciting new field. It was Boyden’s early training as an electrical engineer that got him interested in controlling systems and, ultimately, controlling brain circuits. But he’s a philosopher at heart, he says, always wanting to understand how the universe and the mind came to be. Of that late night in 2004, when he saw his first light-activated neurons, Boyden says, “I love those moments of discovery when you see something for the first time, and you realize you’re going to help people.”
When Clotilde Théry began ...
