April 5, 2019
Andy Lustig from the Karpova Lab at Janelia has developed, documented, and shared a system for wireless optogenetic stimulation.Several commercial systems for wireless controlled optogenetic stimulation are available, however, as you might expect, these systems can be cost-prohibitive and often lack the ability to be customized. To address these limitations, Lustig developed his own wireless, open-source optogenetic stimulation system. It features Cerebro, a rechargeable, battery-powered wireless receiver; a head implant containing optical fibers and two independent laser diodes; a base station for transmitting radio signals to the Cerebro, controlled by a Windows computer via USB or by TTL; a charging dock; and Xavier, a user-friendly GUI for sending and logging base station commands. The full documentation for building this system is available on the Karpova Lab github.
