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Controlling biological processes using light has increased the accuracy and speed with which researchers can manipulate many biological processes. Optical control allows for an unprecedented ability to dissect function and holds the potential for enabling novel genetic therapies.

The NEUROTWIN project is a scientific collaboration between the Transylvanian Institute of Neuroscience (TINS) from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and three internationally acclaimed European institutions. The project is funded through the Twinning instrument, call H2020-WIDESPREAD-2020-5, of the European Union.

The large diversity of cell-types of the brain, provides the means by which circuits perform complex operations. Understanding such diversity is one of the key challenges of modern neuroscience. Neurons have many unique electrophysiological and behavioral features from which parallel cell-type classification can be inferred.

BrainGlobe is a suite of Python-based computational neuroanatomy software tools. We provide software packages for the analysis and visualisation of neuroanatomical data, particularly from whole-brain microscopy. In addition, we provide tools for working with brain atlases, to simplify development of new tools and aid collaboration and cooperation by adopting common standards.

Kilosort is a software package for identifying neurons and their spikes in extracellular electrophysiology, a process known as “spike sorting”. Kilosort has been primarily developed and tested on the Neuropixels 1.

Ultra-low-cost, easily implemented and flexible two-photon scanning microscopy modification offering a several-fold expanded three-dimensional field of view that also maintains single-cell resolution. Application of our system for imaging neuronal activity has been demonstrated on mice, zebrafish and fruit flies

AAV are versatile tools used by neuroscientists for expression and manipulation of neurons. Many scientists have benefited from the high-quality, ready-to-use AAV prep service from Addgene, a nonprofit plasmid repository. However, it can be challenging to determine which AAV tool and techniques are best to use for an experiment.

We present an open-source anthropomorphic robot hand system called HRI hand. Our robot hand system was developed with a focus on the end-effector role of the collaborative robot manipulator. HRI hand is a research platform that can be built at a lower price (approximately $500, using only 3D printing) than commercial end-effectors.

FED3 is an open-source battery-powered device for home-cage training of mice in operant tasks. FED3 can be 3D printed and the control code is open-source and can be modified. The code is written in the Arduino language and is run on an Adafruit Feather M0 Adalogger microcontroller inside of FED3.

The advent of genetically encoded calcium indicators, along with surgical preparations such as thinned skulls or refractive index matched skulls, have enabled mesoscale cortical activity imaging in head-fixed mice. Such imaging studies have revealed complex patterns of coordinated activity across the cortex during spontaneous behaviors, goal-directed behavior, locomotion, motor learning,and perceptual decision making.