Lisa Gunaydin facts for kids

Lisa Gunaydin is an American brain scientist. She is a professor at the University of California San Francisco. Dr. Gunaydin helped discover a special tool called optogenetics. She uses this tool to study how brain circuits control our feelings and actions.

Early Life and Learning

Lisa Gunaydin studied biological sciences at Swarthmore College. After that, she went to Stanford University to get her Ph.D. There, she worked with Dr. Karl Deisseroth. She helped create and use optogenetic technology. This technology helps scientists understand how brain circuits work.

What is Optogenetics?

Optogenetics is a cool science tool. It lets scientists turn specific brain cells on or off using light. Imagine a light switch for tiny parts of the brain! This is done by adding special light-sensitive proteins, called opsins, to brain cells. These opsins come from tiny living things like bacteria.

When scientists shine a laser light of a certain color, these opsins open tiny channels in the brain cells. This can make the cells either become active or quiet down. This way, scientists can see what happens when specific brain cells are turned on or off. It helps them understand how the brain works.

Important Discoveries

In 2008, Dr. Gunaydin received an award for her work at Stanford. She used optogenetics to study brain circuits related to social behaviors. These circuits involve a brain chemical called dopamine.

She also helped improve optogenetics. In 2009, she worked on special opsins that could keep brain cells active for longer. In 2010, she found a way to control brain circuits super fast. This new method avoided unwanted side effects.

Later, in 2015, Dr. Gunaydin and her team made a big discovery. They watched how dopamine brain circuits changed during social behavior. They found that a specific brain connection, from the VTA to the NAc, helps control social actions. By using optogenetics, they could change social behaviors by turning this connection on or off. This was one of the first times scientists could control social behavior in real-time!

After her Ph.D., Dr. Gunaydin continued her research at the University of California, San Francisco. She used her optogenetics skills to study brain circuits linked to anxiety.

Career and Research

In 2016, Dr. Gunaydin started her own lab at the University of California, San Francisco. She is now a professor there. She also became a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator in 2017.

Her lab studies how brain circuits control our actions and feelings. They also want to understand what goes wrong in these circuits when people have brain diseases.

Current Research Projects

Dr. Gunaydin's lab is working on three main projects:

• They are studying how a brain circuit, called the cortico-striatal circuit, affects anxiety. They want to see if changing this circuit could help treat anxiety. In 2020, her lab found a group of brain cells that help animals decide between approaching something or avoiding it.
• They are also exploring how certain brain cells are involved in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
• Finally, they are looking at how brain circuits are different in mouse models of OCD and autism.

Awards and Honors

• 2017 Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator Program Investigator
• 2016 UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences Innovation Award
• 2008 Bio-X Bowes Fellow Stanford