Our lab develops tools to empower the neuroscience community. We believe that tools should be as simple as possible, while addressing broad conceptual questions.
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For example, DART (Drugs Acutely Restricted by Tethering) makes it possible to deliver traditional drugs to defined cell types in a behaving animal. There are two steps:
(1) first, a virus is used to select the cells of interest.
(2) weeks later, any drug from of our catalog can be delivered exclusively to these cells, with no effect on neighboring cells.
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As with traditional pharmacology, DART involves no overexpression of the receptor of interest, and drug effects have acute onset. Unlike traditional pharmacology, DART is cell type-specific. This makes it possible to map "drug x cell-type" effects on behavior, without caveats of overexpression or compensatory artifacts.
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We keep making DART better. Our priorities are to expand the available drug catalog, and to make the tool even easier to use via whole-brain non-invasive dosing. If you have an interest in DART, we collaborate extensively, and are eager to help.
