Due to recent draconian cuts that were implemented by many states across the US, all state-funded universities and colleges will suffer draconian cuts from 10-15% of their total operating budget to upto 30% for landgrant universities. For instance, the University of Pittsburgh has been hit with a drastic decrease in state funding while the Community College of Allegheny County will see county and state funding reduced by at least two million dollars. While the current economic recession may have a negative impact on employment and finances of many families across the United States, other people are coming up with innovative ideas to start their own companies to produce products with practical uses. This is an interesting case of a small company called BackyardBrains, a spin-off company that started at the University of Michigan. Backyard brains was initially developed by a group of electrical, software, and bio-engineers who teamed up and came up with an interesting idea of helping to teach neuroscience to middle schools, highschools and colleges across the United States by building cheap and easy-to-use educational products that teach the basic principles of neuroanatomy.
The company has sold over more than 250 SpikerBox products this year and has already received an NIH educational grant ($450,000) to develop educational curricula that can be implemented in highshools and colleges across the US and to further refine their products. Moreover, the Society for Neuroscience may advocate for the implementation of cheap lab products/ reagents that can be used in highschools and colleges to help educate the public on neuroscience and brain-related diseases across the country. The main goal of the company was to develop a low budget product that enabled students to learn the basic principles of how neurons communicate, receive sensory input and send out electrochemical impulses (also called action potentials). After many long year of labor and brainstorming, Backyard Brains finally developed their first open-source product called SpikerBox. This neat, sleek and small device is a small box that contains a pair of electrodes that record electrophysiological activity, a whole bunch of silicon based resistors, output and inlet outlets, screws, electrical amplifier, structural support rods, switches and speakers batteries. The SpikerBox records the electrical activity from pieces of tissue and converts the electrical activity emanated by neurons (motor or sensory) into acoustic signals (noise) that can be then analyzed and interpreted as neuronal activity. This neat product is currently sold for $89.00 USD, comes with a manual and other spare parts. The electrical data (spikes) that is recorded from the SpikerBox can be downloaded into a laptop or hooked to your iPhone using an application that can be downloaded for free. The data can be analyzed to measure the number and amplitude of spikes per millisecond and make conclusions about the effects of temperature, chemical solutions, hormones, sensory input (moving bristles or hair on the cockroach leg) or electrical stimulation. Also, the company sells other accessories that attach to the Spikerbox such as laptop cables. Please feel free to see a Youtube video demonstration showing the features of SpikerBox located on the left hand side of the article. Although it may not be the best "animal model" compared to a frog or rat, the company encourages the use of coackroaches (Blaberus discoidalis) as an insect model to study neurophysiology as it relates to the human body. The cockroaches are grown and sold by the company as well. The advantages of using the cockroach is that they are cheaper, smaller, can be weaned, reproduce faster than rats and have the ability to re-grow the appendages that are dissected for each experiment performed. Indeed, standard electrophysiological equipment used by neurobiologists to patch pieces of tissue or even cells (patch clamping) can cost from $3,000 upto $10,000. So simply hook the two electrodes of the spiker box into a dissected and immobilized leg of a coackroach (do not worry, they can grow back), turn on the switch and you will soon hear the popping and crackling sounds of electrical activity! The company has a sample laboratory manual that all K12 educators or even high school professors can use as an initial guide to teach neurobiology to students. However, the lab manual is very coarse and bare and is available for editing and sketching by other experts in the field. As the company develops, it is certain that more and more colleges will implement neurophysiology as part of their educational curricula in order to educate the public on the principles of how neurons from the brain (or ganglia in the case of insects) receive sensory input, relay the information through peripheral nerves and cause muscles to twitch in order to produce locomotion. A second product being under development by BackyardBrains is Roboroach, a roach containing several electrical devices surgically implemented into the insect which allows the user study neurotechnology and locomotion in vivo.
What does this news have to do with medical technology? Well, pretty much everything. By studying how certain chemicals, pesticides, natural products, liquid medicines or toxins on neuronal activity and muscle movement , one can perform cheap toxicology and neurobiology experiments that have relevance to human physiology and health. So if you are the parent a high school or middle school kid, please encourage your school officials to support buying cheap scientific equipment like the Spikerbox in order to promote neuroscience research and elevate the quality of education.
To learn more about the products sold by this company, please click on the following links here Did you find this article interesting?
The company has sold over more than 250 SpikerBox products this year and has already received an NIH educational grant ($450,000) to develop educational curricula that can be implemented in highshools and colleges across the US and to further refine their products. Moreover, the Society for Neuroscience may advocate for the implementation of cheap lab products/ reagents that can be used in highschools and colleges to help educate the public on neuroscience and brain-related diseases across the country. The main goal of the company was to develop a low budget product that enabled students to learn the basic principles of how neurons communicate, receive sensory input and send out electrochemical impulses (also called action potentials). After many long year of labor and brainstorming, Backyard Brains finally developed their first open-source product called SpikerBox. This neat, sleek and small device is a small box that contains a pair of electrodes that record electrophysiological activity, a whole bunch of silicon based resistors, output and inlet outlets, screws, electrical amplifier, structural support rods, switches and speakers batteries. The SpikerBox records the electrical activity from pieces of tissue and converts the electrical activity emanated by neurons (motor or sensory) into acoustic signals (noise) that can be then analyzed and interpreted as neuronal activity. This neat product is currently sold for $89.00 USD, comes with a manual and other spare parts. The electrical data (spikes) that is recorded from the SpikerBox can be downloaded into a laptop or hooked to your iPhone using an application that can be downloaded for free. The data can be analyzed to measure the number and amplitude of spikes per millisecond and make conclusions about the effects of temperature, chemical solutions, hormones, sensory input (moving bristles or hair on the cockroach leg) or electrical stimulation. Also, the company sells other accessories that attach to the Spikerbox such as laptop cables. Please feel free to see a Youtube video demonstration showing the features of SpikerBox located on the left hand side of the article. Although it may not be the best "animal model" compared to a frog or rat, the company encourages the use of coackroaches (Blaberus discoidalis) as an insect model to study neurophysiology as it relates to the human body. The cockroaches are grown and sold by the company as well. The advantages of using the cockroach is that they are cheaper, smaller, can be weaned, reproduce faster than rats and have the ability to re-grow the appendages that are dissected for each experiment performed. Indeed, standard electrophysiological equipment used by neurobiologists to patch pieces of tissue or even cells (patch clamping) can cost from $3,000 upto $10,000. So simply hook the two electrodes of the spiker box into a dissected and immobilized leg of a coackroach (do not worry, they can grow back), turn on the switch and you will soon hear the popping and crackling sounds of electrical activity! The company has a sample laboratory manual that all K12 educators or even high school professors can use as an initial guide to teach neurobiology to students. However, the lab manual is very coarse and bare and is available for editing and sketching by other experts in the field. As the company develops, it is certain that more and more colleges will implement neurophysiology as part of their educational curricula in order to educate the public on the principles of how neurons from the brain (or ganglia in the case of insects) receive sensory input, relay the information through peripheral nerves and cause muscles to twitch in order to produce locomotion. A second product being under development by BackyardBrains is Roboroach, a roach containing several electrical devices surgically implemented into the insect which allows the user study neurotechnology and locomotion in vivo.
What does this news have to do with medical technology? Well, pretty much everything. By studying how certain chemicals, pesticides, natural products, liquid medicines or toxins on neuronal activity and muscle movement , one can perform cheap toxicology and neurobiology experiments that have relevance to human physiology and health. So if you are the parent a high school or middle school kid, please encourage your school officials to support buying cheap scientific equipment like the Spikerbox in order to promote neuroscience research and elevate the quality of education.
To learn more about the products sold by this company, please click on the following links here Did you find this article interesting?
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