News

Oct 2023: Viviana named Director of the Merkin Institute

Oct 2023: Cynthia and Tim contributed to a new Addgene “Vectors 101” manual for systemic AAVs

October, 2023

Viviana is named Director of the Merkin Institute for Translational Research. Congratulations!

October, 2023

Cynthia and Tim contributed to a Viral Vectors 101 manual for systemic AAVs on Addgene. Check it out!

September, 2023

Anat and colleagues’ work on distinct light-responsive subpopulations of SCN-VIP neurons is published in iScience. Congratulations to the team!

July, 2023

Miggy, Nick F., Nick G. and colleagues’ work on AAVs for intravenous gene delivery to the NHP brain is published in Nature Nanotechnology. Congratulations to the team!

June, 2023

Xinhong and colleagues’ work on functional gene delivery to and across the brain vasculature is published in Nature Communications. Congratulations to the team!

April, 2023

Tim, Erin and Xiaozhe’s work on new targets for blood-brain barrier crossing by viral vectors is published in Science Advances and featured on Caltech News. Congratulations to the team!

January, 2023

Cynthia’s review on AAVs for delivering genetic cargo to non-human primate nervous systems is published in Current Research in Neurobiology. Congratulations to the team!

January, 2023

Min’s work on spatial transcriptomics for profiling the tropism of viral vectors in tissues is published in Nature Biotechnology. Congratulations to the team!

December, 2022

Viviana is selected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Congratulations!

August, 2022

Seongmin’s work on the structural basis of receptor usage by the engineered capsid AAV-PHP.eB is published in Molecular Therapy–Methods & Clinical Development. Congratulations to the team!

May, 2022

Xinhong and Priya’s work on Engineered AAVs for non-invasive gene delivery to rodent and non-human primate nervous systems is published in Neuron. Congratulations to the team!

April, 2022

Rose and colleagues describe an AAV toolkit for targeting brain cells in the Annual Review of Neuroscience. Congratulations to the team!

January, 2022

Viviana is named a 2021 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Congratulations!

December, 2021

David, Nick F., Nick G. and Miggy’s work on AAV capsid variants with brain-wide transgene expression and decreased liver targeting after intravenous delivery in mouse and marmoset is published in Nature Neuroscience and featured by Caltech. Congratulations to the team!

December, 2021

We received an NIH Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) grant for engineering AAVs for brain cell type-specific manipulation across species.

October, 2021

With the labs of Sarkis Mazmanian, David Van Valen, Andrew Fox, Ashley Seifert and others, we’re joining the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s initiative to explore gut-brain circuitry dysfunction in Parkinson’s Disease.

October, 2021

David, Michael and Tatyana’s work on Deep Parallel Characterization of AAV Tropism and AAV-Mediated Transcriptional Changes via Single-Cell RNA Sequencing is published in Frontiers in Immunology. Congratulations to the team!

March, 2021

Ryan’s work on Response Properties of Dorsal Raphe Dopamine Neurons is featured in JNeurosci’s This week in The Journal. Congratulations to the team!

December, 2020

We collaborated with Lin Tian’s and Loren Looger’s group on Directed Evolution of a Selective and Sensitive Serotonin Sensor via Machine Learning. The paper is out in Cell. Congratulations to the team!

September, 2020

We collaborated with Anne Schaefer’s group on Negative feedback control of neuronal activity by microglia. The paper is out in Nature. Congratulations to the team!

May, 2020

Priya’s AAV paper is featured on the cover of Nature Methods and in the NIH BRAIN Initiative’s photo contest. Congratulations to the team!

April, 2020

Priya’s Nature Methods paper describing multiplexed Cre-dependent selection of AAVs for targeted evolution (M-CREATE) is featured by Caltech! Congratulations to the team!

October 2019

Claire’s work on expanding neuroscience’s toolkit with machine learning-guided opsin engineering is now out in “Nature Methods” and featured by Caltech. Congratulations to the team!

June 2019

Michael and Grigorios’ work on Settling the Debate on Serotonin’s Role in Sleep is now out in “Neuron” with a video abstract, and featured on Caltech news. Congratulations to the team!

February 2019

Viviana is featured in the Neuron “Voices” article Driving the Next Steps with Technology, celebrating 30 years of Neuron, where she discusses recent advances and neuroscience applications of adeno-associated viral vectors.

January 2019

Rose’s AAV protocols paper is featured as the cover of Nature Protocols. Congratulations to the team!

May 2018

Viviana is promoted to Professor of Neuroscience and Biological Engineering. Congratulations!

May 2018

Our lab just published a review paper on Viral strategies for targeting CNS/PNS.

(Image: PACT clearing of Thy1-eYFP mouse brain)
July 2017

Viviana, Ryan and Jenny participated in “Advanced Technologies in Molecular Neuroscience” course at the Cold Spring Harbor Lab and taught tissue clearing methods.

July 2017

Ken’s AAV paper is featured as the cover of Nature Neuroscience. Congratulations to the team!

June 2017

Ken’s paper on novel engineered AAVs is published in Nature Neuroscience and featured on Caltech news. Congratulations to the team!

June 2017

Ryan’s work on DRN dopamine neurons is published in Neuron. Congratulations to the team!

May 2017

Dr. Ken Chan, GLab’s first PhD recipient, won the (1) Demetriades-Tsafka-Kokkalis Prize in Entrepreneurship or Related Fields and the (2) Lawrence L. and Audrey W. Ferguson Prize for his thesis work on viral vectors and tissue clearing. Congratulations!

April 2017

Alon and Ken’s paper on bone CLARITY is published in Science Translational Medicine. Congratulations to the team!

November 2016

Discussing neurodegeneration with Bill Gates at Caltech.

November 2016

Viviana is featured in the Neuron “Voices” article Global Collaboration, Learning from Other Fields.

September 2016

We collaborated with the Newman lab at Caltech for Microbial Imaging after PACT called miPACT – “Exposing the 3D biogeography and metabolic states of pathogens in cystic fibrosis sputum via hydrogel embedding, clearing and rRNA labeling“. The paper is out in mBio and made it to the journal’s featured image, and also featured on Caltech news. Congratulations to the team!

July 2016

NIH Director’s Blog highlights recent G-Lab research:  Snapshots of Life: Making the Brain Transparent.

July 2016

Jenny’s review on tissue clearing and viral vectors for mapping biological circuits is now in Current Opinion in Biotechnology. Congratulations to the team!

June 2016

Scientific American features our work on Delivery Vectors that Cross the Blood-Brain Barrier. Congratulations to the team!

April 2016

Cheng’s paper on Mapping Neurons to Improve the Treatment of Parkinson’s out in Neuron and also featured on Caltech news! Congratulations to the team!

February 2016

Ben’s paper on Delivering genes across the blood-brain barrier is out in Nature Biotechnology and featured on Caltech news. Congratulations to the team!

January 2016

Nature News and Views on Optogenetic Voltage Sensors.

October 2015

If you use tissue clearing – these detailed protocols just out in Nature Protocols will help!

July 2015

Spying on Opsins.

December 2014

Scientific American 10 World Changing Ideas 2014 features our group’s work on Transparent Organisms.

September 2014

Nick and Claire’s paper on voltage sensing with Archer 1 has been published in Nature Communications. Congratulations to the team!

2014: World Economic Forum
2014: A new way to understand the human brain – World Economic Forum
September 2014

Interview about Optogenetics and CLARITY on The World Economic Forum Blog.

August 2014

CBS News on “Single-cell phenotyping within transparent intact tissue through whole-body clearing. Congratulations to the team!

August 2014

G-Lab’s first paper has been published in Cell. Congratulations to the team!