In this informal talk, I'll showcase a novel tool set centred around thin silicon probes, originally developed at HHMI Janelia, with which I have worked heavily over the last 2 years and am commercializing through my start-up, Cambridge NeuroTech. The probes perform at exceptional levels in vivo providing stable chronic recording in the same locations for many weeks due to their small size and inert, low impedance electrodes (lower impedance = higher signal to noise ratio). Built-in resilience to photo-electric artifacts during photo-stimulation makes them the optimal tool for combined opto-electrophysiology, thereby surpassing a serious limitation of traditional silicon probes and tetrodes. Co-designed with the probes are ultra-small microdrives (2 x 2.5 mm footprint) offering seamless alignment between probes and drive, and co-alignment with fibre optical and drug delivery cannulae too. Furthermore, the probe architecture is designed to stack in to user-definable 3-D arrays on each microdrive, enabling true, multi-functional 3-D arrays in a footprint small enough so as to be scalable for multi-region targeting in rodents and upwards. 

Complementing this innovative tool-set, I'll highlight and demo the latest in wireless electrophysiology (128 channels) and wireless optogenetics, and I'll describe a robotic stereotaxic system with automated craniotomoy and micro-injection capabilities. The aim of this talk is inform and inspire your experimental thinking and to enable you to exploit some of the best currently available tools for neuroscience.