PREFERRED. Boyden co-invented optogenetics and expansion microscopy, the latter physically swelling fixed tissue in a hydrogel to achieve nanoscale-resolution imaging on conventional diffraction-limited microscopes; his Synthetic Neurobiology Group continues to push these techniques (expansion revealing, thousandfold expansion microscopy) alongside genetically encoded voltage/activity indicators and brain-wide circuit mapping. The group's Media Lab page notes it is currently accepting new students.

Deisseroth co-invented optogenetics (light-gated ion channels for millisecond-scale neural control) and CLARITY-type hydrogel tissue-clearing methods that render intact brains optically transparent for whole-organ, cellular-resolution light-sheet and confocal imaging, together forming a foundational toolkit for causal, high-resolution circuit neuroscience.