Why it’s Important

The Open Ephys Acquisition Board was developed around 2013 by Josh Siegle and Jakob Voigts while they were PhD students in the Moore Lab (Siegle was co-supervised by Matthew Wilson at MIT and Voigts was co-supervised by Emery Brown at MIT). At the time, commercial systems for acquiring multichannel electrophysiology data were heavy, about the size of a microwave and cost $100,000 or more. The Open Ephys Acquisition Board was light, could fit into a backpack and cost under $1,000 to build. Researchers can also customize the system to suit their needs. Open Ephys, a company with offices in Atlanta and Lisbon, now distributes a fully assembled version, along with a range of additional open-source devices for neuroscience experiments.

What it Does

The device makes it possible for scientists to read out signals from hundreds of neurons in parallel, which gives them insight into how neurons coordinate their activity to guide behavior. This experimental technique, known as “extracellular electrophysiology,” has contributed to numerous scientific breakthroughs, including the discoveries of place cells and grid cells that won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2014.

Where it’s Used

Over 1,000 Open Ephys Acquisition Boards can be found in labs around the world, including at nearly every major neuroscience research institute. Data collected with the board has been used in more than 350 scientific publications.