Awarded in 2006
Home Department: Bioengineering
Faculty Advisors: Karl Deisseroth (Bioengineering, Psychiatry)

Research Title: Optogenetic studies of brain diseases: Engineering light delivery into biological tissue

Research Description: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a therapeutic option for intractable neurological and psychiatric disorders, including Parkinson's disease. Because of the heterogeneity of brain tissue, it has been challenging to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of DBS. Using optogenetics, which employs light activated conductance regulators expressed in specific cell types, the Deisseroth laboratory tested a multitude of suggested mechanisms, systematically driving or inhibiting an array of circuit elements in freely moving Parkinsonian rodents. Since the therapeutic effects could be accounted for by stimulation of cortical axons, Murtaza was involved in developing noninvasive methods for stimulating these axons as a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

WHERE IS HE NOW?

Murtaza is a Delivery Science / Clinical Informatics Fellow at Kaiser Permanente developing predictive models to support clinical decision making.