Robotic arm could help reveal brain’s inner secrets
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Researchers at MIT and Georgia Tech have created a robotic arm that automates whole-cell patch clamping for brain cells (Photo: Sputnik Animation and MIT McGovern Institute)
The four-step process the robotic arm uses to find and record information from neurons in the living brain (Image: MIT and Georgia Tech)
MIT researcher Ed Boyden (left) and Georgia Tech researchers Suhasa Kodandaramaia (seated) and Craig Forest have developed a way to automate the process of finding and recording information from neurons in the living brain (Photo: MIT)
Article Summary
A group of researchers at MIT and Georgia Tech has built a robotic arm that can automate whole-cell patch clamping, a complicated technique that normally requires great manual dexterity and takes researchers months to master. Once streamlined, this technology will monitor and record the electrical signals generated by the neurons in a living brain, to help uncover the secret inner workings of the human mind - or at least, in the not-so-distant future, of a lab rat's.
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