Meet the machines that are helping us understand the brain
Published in Brain/Neurology.
From probing neurons to grabbing microscope slides, cutting-edge equipment is helping neuroscientists advance research faster
Cliff Slaughterbeck, Ph.D., is showing off some of his babies.
“Nobody sells this whole thing off the shelf,” he said, gesturing at a microscope housed in a large black box, one of eight identical rigs set up in the Allen Institute’s electrophysiology lab, where neuroscientists use impossibly thin electrodes to listen in on neurons’ electrical chatter. The rigs combine commercial microscopes with several in-house-made pieces and software programs that adapt the scope to the specialized experiments run in this lab.
A specialized microscope ‘rig’ allows neuroscientists to record electrical properties from and map connections between up to eight neurons simultaneously.
A specialized microscope ‘rig’ allows neuroscientists to record electrical properties from and map connections between up to eight neurons simultaneously.
In the 1990s, Slaughterbeck, a former physicist, built a special kind of microscope to study the surface of ice. Now, he’s a principal engineer on the Allen Institute’s engineering team, working on equipment and software that allow the Institute’s scientists to carry out their work.
On a recent Monday, Slaughterbeck took me and Allen Institute Digital Media Specialist Madeline Burchard on a whirlwind tour of some of the machines that neuroscientists are using to solve the mysteries of the brain.
From a special microscope that lets scientists record electrical activity from up to eight neurons at once to a new high-tech brain slicer under development, these contraptions allow their users to get more data, faster. For 2023’s Brain Awareness Week, we learned the ins and outs of four of these mechanical Allen Institute team members.
Meet the machines.