Stanford Radio

Guest Karl Deisseroth is a bioengineer and a psychiatrist who has developed two of the most transformational research techniques shaping our understanding of how the brain works — optogenetics, which allows neuroscientists to control brain cells with light, and CLARITY, a way to render the brain’s gray matter transparent yet retain all its intricate wiring for easier study. There is a vast chasm between neuroscience and psychiatry, Deisseroth says of the reasons he felt compelled to develop technology ahead of pursuing science. It was never a trade-off of one over the other, however. It was simply where we had to go to get better at the science, Deisseroth tells fellow bioengineer and host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast.