We would like to congratulate Ed Boyden for receiving The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine. 

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine went to Ed as well as neuroscientists Karl Deisseroth and Gero Miesenböck, for the development of optogenetics, a method to study brain function with unprecedented resolution.

Excerpt from BBVA press release:

"In a bare five years, thousands of groups the world over have begun using optogenetics to investigate functions like sleep, appetite, decision-making, temporal perception or the creation of memories, and elucidate the mechanisms of conditions such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s, depression and certain forms of blindness.

The beauty of optogenetics is that it allows the selective control of neural activity simply by applying light of the right wavelength. Before, the most widely used methods to study the living brain could modulate the activity of hundreds of thousands of neurons, but with little selectivity. With optogenetics, it is possible to act exclusively on neurons treated previously with light-sensitive proteins, according to the behavior being tested.

Ed Boyden, (Plano, Texas, United States, 1979), a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, used the following simile in conversation, after hearing of the award: “If we imagine the brain as a computer, optogenetics is a key that allows us to send extremely precise commands. It is a tool whereby we can manipulate the brain with exquisite precision.” ..."

Full article on the BBVA Foundation website: hhttp://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/tlfu/ing/microsites/premios/fronteras/galardonados/2015/biomedicina.jsp

Follow the link below to watch the BBVA Interview with Edward Boyden, Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine:
http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/tlfu/ing/galeria/video/fichagm/index.jsp?idActividad=1710&Idioma=20002