{"errors":[{"message":"Cannot return null for non-nullable field PageInfo.currentIndex.","locations":[{"line":13,"column":13}],"path":["newsBetween","pageInfo","currentIndex"]}],"data":{"newsBetween":{"items":[{"title":"Mr.","date":"2016-01-29 10:00:00","id":449,"author":"1","blurb":"

With the help of light-emitting diodes as small as neurons, University of Michigan researchers are unlocking the secrets of neural pathways in the brain.

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The team anticipates that experiments using probes based on their design could lead to breakthroughs in understanding and treating neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's.

","blurb_image_uid":"2016/01/29/12/12/21/377/resized_LEDS_ATTACHED_PROBES.jpg","blurb_expanded_image_uid":null,"article":"

With the help of light-emitting diodes as small as neurons, University of Michigan researchers are unlocking the secrets of neural pathways in the brain.

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The researchers have built and tested in mice neural probes that hold what are believed to be the smallest implantable LEDs ever made. The new probes can control and record the activity of many individual neurons, measuring how changes in the activity of a single neuron can affect its neighbours.

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The team anticipates that experiments using probes based on their design could lead to breakthroughs in understanding and treating neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's.
It was recently published as the cover story in the December 16 edition of Neuron, one of the most influential and relied upon journals in the field of neuroscience.

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\"This is a very big step forward,\" said Kensall Wise, the William Gould Dow Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, who was involved with the research. \"The fact that you can generate these optical signals on the probe, in a living brain, opens up new doors.\"

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A network of around 100 billion neurons power the human brain, and figuring out how they work together is a monumental and important task, the researchers say.

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\"Hundreds of millions of people suffer from neurological diseases, but treatment methods and drugs are currently very limited because scientific understanding of the brain is lacking,\" said Fan Wu, a postdoctoral researcher in electrical engineering and computer sciences and co-first author on a new paper on the findings published in Neuron. \"We have developed a tool that is needed to better understand how the brain works—and why it doesn't work—to try to solve these problems.\"
In genetically modified rodents, neurons can be turned on and off with light. Typically, neuroscientists using this \"optogenetics\" technique shine light on a region of the brain through implanted optical fibers and record the response with a second device. This helps to reveal which regions of the brain are responsible for which behaviors. However, it cannot reveal how the neurons communicate with one another.

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The new probes can. Each probe array contains 12 LEDs and 32 electrodes. The micro LEDs are as small as a neuron's cell body, so they can turn single neurons on and off. Meanwhile, the microelectrodes measure activity at the single-neuron level, reporting how a change in one neuron's behavior affects the surrounding network.

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\"Now we can know how a group of cells, both adjacent and farther away, are responding to the activation of a single cell,\" Wu said. \"This will help us better understand how these cells are communicating with each other.\"

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While the probes were made at U-M, the experiments to demonstrate them took place at New York University in the lab of György Buzsáki, a leader in experimental neuroscience. Eran Stark, who is currently an assistant professor of neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, used them to measure how signals pass through the brains of mice. He focused on the area of the brain responsible for short- and long-term memory.

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\"Using micro-LED probes, we may tease out how the signals propagate inside the neural circuitry so that we can understand how memories are formed, retrieved and replaced,\" said Euisik Yoon, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at U-M and project leader.

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The proof-of-concept experiment found that superficial and deep neurons in the hippocampus produce different kinds of brain waves when stimulated. Future experiments will explore how these waves are related to memory.

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The research is described in the paper, \"Monolithically Integrated μLEDs on Silicon Neural Probes for High-Resolution Optogenetic Studies in Behaving Animals.\". It is available online now. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

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The Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) announced on the 7th of December, 2015, the formal launch of the Global Lighting Challenge (GLC)—a race to deploy 10 billion high-efficiency, high-quality, and affordable lighting products (such as LED bulbs) as quickly as possible. Lighting currently accounts for 15% of the global electricity consumption—more than the electricity generated by all the nuclear power stations in the world—and 5% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. An overnight global transition to highly efficient lighting could avoid more than 800 million metric tons of CO2 emissions, equivalent to displacing 684 coal-fired power plants for a year.

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The GLC was announced by Sweden’s Minister of Energy Ibrahim Baylan, along with Ikea’s Chief Sustainability Officer Steve Howard and other CEM partners, during an event at the COP21 climate negotiations. Initial commitments to the GLC were also announced, including:
• India: India has a goal to deploy 770 million LED bulbs and 35 million street lights using energy efficient LED bulbs in 3 years’ time.
• Ikea: Ikea’s goal is to sell over 500 million LED bulbs to Ikea customers over the next 5 years (through the end of 2020).
• China: Will work to achieve the domestic sales of over 5 billion LED bulbs over the next 2 years.

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“During the last years we have seen impressive innovations in the field of lighting products and solutions,” said Minister Baylan, “New lighting creates new opportunities in our societies and with multiple benefits. Sweden wants to support the transition to universal access of high-efficient and high-quality lighting, which is why we join this race with other CEM partners to realise the efficiency potential that exists in Sweden and the rest of the world.”

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Additional commitments and supporting actions have been made by the governments of Australia, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States as well as the State of Victoria in Australia. Commitments and supporting statements have also been collected from Cree, Philips, OSRAM, Enervee, and the DesignLights Consortium. The GLC will continue to seek additional commitments until the goal of 10 billion bulbs is achieved. All commitments are recognised on the GLC website, globallightingchallenge.org. An update on progress will take place during the seventh Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM7), which will be hosted by the United States in June 2016.

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Super-efficient and affordable LEDs have sparked the development of a rapidly growing global commercial market for off-grid solar lighting, putting clean and safe lighting in reach for the 1.2 billion people who lack access to modern energy services around the world.
The GLC was introduced during the sixth Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM6) in May 2015, with 13 CEM member countries and the European Commission providing endorsements. It is designed as a public-private partnership to generate ambitious commitments from national and subnational governments, big and small businesses, retailers, and others to meet the goal of 10 billion bulbs.

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About the GLC \r\n
The GLC brings together and elevates efforts to promote efficient lighting policies, including the CEM’s Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment (SEAD) initiative and Global Lighting Energy and Access Energy Partnership (Global LEAP), United Nations Environment Programme and Global Environment Facility’s en.lighten initiative, International Finance Corporation’s Lighting Global, International Energy Agency’s Energy Efficient End-Use Equipment Solid State Lighting Annex, and The Climate Group. The GLC has been endorsed by Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Commission.

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About the CEM \r\n
The Clean Energy Ministerial is a forum of the world’s largest and most forward-leaning countries working together to accelerate the global transition to clean energy. The CEM pairs the high-level engagement of energy ministers with year-round technical initiatives and campaigns to drive faster deployment of clean energy policy and technology. CEM members are Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, the European Commission, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Together, the 23 countries and the European Commission account for about 90% of the world’s clean energy investments and 75% of its greenhouse gas emissions.

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LIGHTING TODAY Archive Jan 2016