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Re:Scientists Watch Thoughts Form in the Brain by ericjang on Thursday August 25, 2016 @01:15PM (#12360705)
I don't think optogenetics is feasible for human BCI. Optogenetics requires one to express channelrhodopsin proteins in the neurons of interest - which means you need to genetically modify the human at birth. We know how to do this in mice, but not humans since the gene expression pathway for neural proteins in humans is poorly understood (unlike mice and zebrafish). Even with optimal designer baby scenarios, there's no hope for us adults; gene-editing therapies for adults is way harder and we'll likely be long dead before we see anything close.
Re:Scientists Watch Thoughts Form in the Brain by aperrien on Thursday August 25, 2016 @05:37PM (#12362706)
CRISPR techniques allow us to modify gene expression in organisms long after birth; it has been heavily used in adult animals, but I don't think it's been used in humans just yet.
Re:Scientists Watch Thoughts Form in the Brain by ericjang on Thursday August 25, 2016 @08:11PM (#12363442)
CRISPR is cool, but isn't the challenge of adult genome editing bottlenecked by the delivery vehicle? Last time I checked it's still hard to deliver viral vectors past the blood-brain barrier. Does CRISPR have a unique solution to that? I also would imagine that a "BCI" optogenetic adapter would be so massive that payload size alone (never mind electric properties) would never make it past the BBB.
Re:Scientists Watch Thoughts Form in the Brain by kevinalexbrown on Friday August 26, 2016 @12:21AM (#12364212)
You don't need to genetically modify an organism at birth to use optogenetics.