Ed Boyden
@eboyden3.bsky.social
Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology, MIT. Investigator, HHMI. Leader, Synthetic Neurobiology Group, http://synthneuro.org. Scientist, inventor, entrepreneur.
Reposted by Ed Boyden
What if we could locate, sequence, and identify every protein in a cell? This would unlock a transformative way to study biology and disease.
That question shaped my PhD, and I’m excited to share our new preprint on the Principles of In Situ Protein Sequencing, now live on bioRxiv.
That question shaped my PhD, and I’m excited to share our new preprint on the Principles of In Situ Protein Sequencing, now live on bioRxiv.
Principles of in situ protein sequencing: expansion microscopy-adapted Edman degradation and amino acid recognition https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.29.702630v1
February 3, 2026 at 1:39 PM
What if we could locate, sequence, and identify every protein in a cell? This would unlock a transformative way to study biology and disease.
That question shaped my PhD, and I’m excited to share our new preprint on the Principles of In Situ Protein Sequencing, now live on bioRxiv.
That question shaped my PhD, and I’m excited to share our new preprint on the Principles of In Situ Protein Sequencing, now live on bioRxiv.
Reposted by Ed Boyden
New preprint out!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
One of the most salient lessons I learned in all my adventures with screening and protein engineering is the importance of context. The context in which you test a gene or protein determines what function it has.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
One of the most salient lessons I learned in all my adventures with screening and protein engineering is the importance of context. The context in which you test a gene or protein determines what function it has.
February 6, 2026 at 4:32 PM
New preprint out!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
One of the most salient lessons I learned in all my adventures with screening and protein engineering is the importance of context. The context in which you test a gene or protein determines what function it has.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
One of the most salient lessons I learned in all my adventures with screening and protein engineering is the importance of context. The context in which you test a gene or protein determines what function it has.
In a new blog (uniconq.substack.com), Denisa Lepǎdatu and I propose a playful, and perhaps useful, framing of fundamental science that goes for the ground truth - namely, as universe conquering, the confrontation of the foundational unknowns and challenges of existence.
Universe Conquering | Substack
A blog about how to overcome the limits of human existence, through ground truth-oriented understanding. Click to read Universe Conquering, a Substack publication. Launched 12 days ago.
uniconq.substack.com
January 17, 2026 at 9:05 PM
In a new blog (uniconq.substack.com), Denisa Lepǎdatu and I propose a playful, and perhaps useful, framing of fundamental science that goes for the ground truth - namely, as universe conquering, the confrontation of the foundational unknowns and challenges of existence.
Reposted by Ed Boyden
Amid a tumultuous year, researchers opined on policy changes, funding uncertainty, scientific trends and AI’s impact. Read essays by @tuthill.bsky.social, @bingbrunton.bsky.social, @kordinglab.bsky.social, @eboyden3.bsky.social, @docbecca.bsky.social, and Tim Requarth.
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/44NL9jy
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/44NL9jy
The Transmitter’s favorite essays of 2025
Throughout a tumultuous year in science, researchers opined on policy changes and funding uncertainty, as well as scientific trends and the impact of artificial-intelligence tools on the field.
bit.ly
December 29, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Amid a tumultuous year, researchers opined on policy changes, funding uncertainty, scientific trends and AI’s impact. Read essays by @tuthill.bsky.social, @bingbrunton.bsky.social, @kordinglab.bsky.social, @eboyden3.bsky.social, @docbecca.bsky.social, and Tim Requarth.
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/44NL9jy
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/44NL9jy
We are hiring a lab manager, for our research group, the Synthetic Neurobiology group (aka Boyden Lab) at MIT/HHMI (on the MIT campus, Cambridge, MA)! Please apply if you're qualified and interested, and spread the word! hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...
Laboratory Manager II - Boyden Lab
Primary Work Address: 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139 Current HHMI Employees, click here to apply via your Workday account. The Synthetic Neurobiology Group (Boyden Lab) at the MIT McGov...
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
December 12, 2025 at 3:11 PM
We are hiring a lab manager, for our research group, the Synthetic Neurobiology group (aka Boyden Lab) at MIT/HHMI (on the MIT campus, Cambridge, MA)! Please apply if you're qualified and interested, and spread the word! hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...
Reposted by Ed Boyden
I’m so excited to share my first-author PhD paper, out today in Neuron as a NeuroResource! A huge thanks to all of my co-authors, and of course to my wonderful mentors Guoping Feng, @fennak.bsky.social and @eboyden3.bsky.social. www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
A transcriptomic atlas of astrocyte heterogeneity across space and time in mouse and marmoset
In this NeuroResource, Schroeder et al. present a transcriptomic atlas across brain
regions and developmental time points in mouse and marmoset. Detailed analysis focused
on astrocytes revealed that t...
www.cell.com
November 20, 2025 at 6:33 PM
I’m so excited to share my first-author PhD paper, out today in Neuron as a NeuroResource! A huge thanks to all of my co-authors, and of course to my wonderful mentors Guoping Feng, @fennak.bsky.social and @eboyden3.bsky.social. www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Reposted by Ed Boyden
Diatoms – microscopic algae found almost everywhere there’s water – make up ~25% of Earth’s annual oxygen production.🌎
EMBL researchers have now found a way to easily reveal their inner structures by combining cryo-fixation with ultrastructural expansion microscopy 🔬
www.cell.com/current-biol...
EMBL researchers have now found a way to easily reveal their inner structures by combining cryo-fixation with ultrastructural expansion microscopy 🔬
www.cell.com/current-biol...
November 6, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Diatoms – microscopic algae found almost everywhere there’s water – make up ~25% of Earth’s annual oxygen production.🌎
EMBL researchers have now found a way to easily reveal their inner structures by combining cryo-fixation with ultrastructural expansion microscopy 🔬
www.cell.com/current-biol...
EMBL researchers have now found a way to easily reveal their inner structures by combining cryo-fixation with ultrastructural expansion microscopy 🔬
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Just posted, "The Tiling Tree Method, Part 2: Common Pitfalls and How to Overcome Them" a follow-up to our previous essay on the "tiling tree" method for thinking of all the possible solutions to a problem, by Claire Wang, Nina Khera, and myself. engineeringx.substack.com/p/the-tiling...
The Tiling Tree Method, Part 2: Common Pitfalls and How to Overcome Them
How to really think of every way of solving a problem
engineeringx.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Just posted, "The Tiling Tree Method, Part 2: Common Pitfalls and How to Overcome Them" a follow-up to our previous essay on the "tiling tree" method for thinking of all the possible solutions to a problem, by Claire Wang, Nina Khera, and myself. engineeringx.substack.com/p/the-tiling...
It was fun writing this essay, about bottom-up neuroscience and how we might simulate entire brains, using data collected via new technologies (expansion microscopy, optogenetics, whole brain voltage imaging, and more), with @kordinglab.bsky.social!
Applying new tools to entire brains, starting with C. elegans, offers the opportunity to uncover how molecules work together to generate neural physiology, and how neurons generate behavior, write @kordinglab.bsky.social and @eboyden3.bsky.social.
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/48EzEO8
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/48EzEO8
Whole-brain, bottom-up neuroscience: The time for it is now
Applying new tools to entire brains, starting with C. elegans, offers the opportunity to uncover how molecules work together to generate neural physiology and how neurons work together to generate…
bit.ly
October 21, 2025 at 12:38 AM
It was fun writing this essay, about bottom-up neuroscience and how we might simulate entire brains, using data collected via new technologies (expansion microscopy, optogenetics, whole brain voltage imaging, and more), with @kordinglab.bsky.social!
Reposted by Ed Boyden
Applying new tools to entire brains, starting with C. elegans, offers the opportunity to uncover how molecules work together to generate neural physiology, and how neurons generate behavior, write @kordinglab.bsky.social and @eboyden3.bsky.social.
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/48EzEO8
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/48EzEO8
Whole-brain, bottom-up neuroscience: The time for it is now
Applying new tools to entire brains, starting with C. elegans, offers the opportunity to uncover how molecules work together to generate neural physiology and how neurons work together to generate…
bit.ly
October 20, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Applying new tools to entire brains, starting with C. elegans, offers the opportunity to uncover how molecules work together to generate neural physiology, and how neurons generate behavior, write @kordinglab.bsky.social and @eboyden3.bsky.social.
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/48EzEO8
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/48EzEO8
Wonderful to collaborate with, and to support as an advisor, E11 Bio - and to announce PRISM, a technology for mapping brains in a self-correcting way, by barcoding neurons followed by expansion microscopy! Thread below by E11 Bio CEO Andrew Payne, with preprint at, www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
E11 Bio is excited to unveil PRISM technology for mapping brain wiring with simple light microscopes. Today, brain mapping in humans and other mammals is bottlenecked by accurate neuron tracing. PRISM uses molecular ID codes and AI to help neurons trace themselves.
Read more: e11.bio/blog/prism
Read more: e11.bio/blog/prism
October 2, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Wonderful to collaborate with, and to support as an advisor, E11 Bio - and to announce PRISM, a technology for mapping brains in a self-correcting way, by barcoding neurons followed by expansion microscopy! Thread below by E11 Bio CEO Andrew Payne, with preprint at, www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Ed Boyden
Kicking off #GEF25, the Morning Presidential Lecture features @eboyden3.bsky.social on the origins and mission of the event, who calls it 'the first conference of its kind'.
September 29, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Kicking off #GEF25, the Morning Presidential Lecture features @eboyden3.bsky.social on the origins and mission of the event, who calls it 'the first conference of its kind'.
What if you could think of every possible solution to a problem? Then you might be able to simply pick the best one - even if it was highly nonobvious. With the “tiling tree” method, you can learn, and practice, the skill of doing just that: engineeringx.substack.com/p/the-tiling...
The Tiling Tree Method
How to think of every way of solving a problem
engineeringx.substack.com
September 21, 2025 at 9:20 PM
What if you could think of every possible solution to a problem? Then you might be able to simply pick the best one - even if it was highly nonobvious. With the “tiling tree” method, you can learn, and practice, the skill of doing just that: engineeringx.substack.com/p/the-tiling...
Just posted, by Nina Khera, @clairebookworm.bsky.social, and myself: “Involuntary collaboration: a strategy for decentralized science”! Discussing the "invent-deploy-discover-design" model, and why the Bell Labs of the 21st century might be the whole earth. engineeringx.substack.com/p/involuntar...
July 12, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Just posted, by Nina Khera, @clairebookworm.bsky.social, and myself: “Involuntary collaboration: a strategy for decentralized science”! Discussing the "invent-deploy-discover-design" model, and why the Bell Labs of the 21st century might be the whole earth. engineeringx.substack.com/p/involuntar...
Reposted by Ed Boyden
- @ZachinBoston, for @mit.edu News, on the story of Convergent Research and our FROs
feat. @eboyden3.bsky.social, @adammarblestone.bsky.social, @andrewcpayne.bsky.social, @sgrodriques.bsky.social, Tom Kalil, @anastasiag.bsky.social...
news.mit.edu/2025/former-...
feat. @eboyden3.bsky.social, @adammarblestone.bsky.social, @andrewcpayne.bsky.social, @sgrodriques.bsky.social, Tom Kalil, @anastasiag.bsky.social...
news.mit.edu/2025/former-...
Former MIT researchers advance a new model for innovation
Developed by former MIT researchers, focused research organizations (FROs) undertake large research efforts and have begun to contribute to scientific advances.
news.mit.edu
June 9, 2025 at 7:46 PM
- @ZachinBoston, for @mit.edu News, on the story of Convergent Research and our FROs
feat. @eboyden3.bsky.social, @adammarblestone.bsky.social, @andrewcpayne.bsky.social, @sgrodriques.bsky.social, Tom Kalil, @anastasiag.bsky.social...
news.mit.edu/2025/former-...
feat. @eboyden3.bsky.social, @adammarblestone.bsky.social, @andrewcpayne.bsky.social, @sgrodriques.bsky.social, Tom Kalil, @anastasiag.bsky.social...
news.mit.edu/2025/former-...
MIT News reports on focused research organizations (FROs), non-profit startups, developed by some of our group members and alumni. FROs can work on problems that are a poor fit for academia or the for-profit startup world. news.mit.edu/2025/former-...
Former MIT researchers advance a new model for innovation
Developed by former MIT researchers, focused research organizations (FROs) undertake large research efforts and have begun to contribute to scientific advances.
news.mit.edu
June 7, 2025 at 9:59 PM
MIT News reports on focused research organizations (FROs), non-profit startups, developed by some of our group members and alumni. FROs can work on problems that are a poor fit for academia or the for-profit startup world. news.mit.edu/2025/former-...
Down to my last few post-it notes, that my group members made for me in 2014, after I got tenure at MIT. Each post-it note contains something that I said often enough, that my group members thought it would save me time, to simply hand out a post-it note, whenever the wisdom was needed :)
June 6, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Down to my last few post-it notes, that my group members made for me in 2014, after I got tenure at MIT. Each post-it note contains something that I said often enough, that my group members thought it would save me time, to simply hand out a post-it note, whenever the wisdom was needed :)
Just posted, “Engineering Serendipity,” a lightly edited (to accommodate the transition from spoken to written form) version of the commencement speech I gave at my high school, the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, May 8, 2025: engineeringx.substack.com/p/engineerin...
Engineering Serendipity
Three Short Stories About How to Increase Luck Through Skill
engineeringx.substack.com
June 2, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Just posted, “Engineering Serendipity,” a lightly edited (to accommodate the transition from spoken to written form) version of the commencement speech I gave at my high school, the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, May 8, 2025: engineeringx.substack.com/p/engineerin...
Just published, expansion in situ genome sequencing, where you can sequence DNA while still inside the cell, mapping its organization relative to proteins and other markers, with the help of expansion microscopy! Led by @jbuenrostro.bksy.social. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
May 30, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Just published, expansion in situ genome sequencing, where you can sequence DNA while still inside the cell, mapping its organization relative to proteins and other markers, with the help of expansion microscopy! Led by @jbuenrostro.bksy.social. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Ed Boyden
New op-ed in @nature.com: The Trump administration's assault on freedoms and the rule of law is an existential threat to US science. We urge scientists to speak out in defense of freedoms, not just funding. With Andrea Liu @upenn.edu and Sidney Nagel of UChicago! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
US researchers must stand up to protect freedoms, not just funding
Curtailment of freedoms and disregard for the rule of law in the United States is destroying the ability of science to serve the nation’s, and the world’s, interests. Researchers can take action.
www.nature.com
May 13, 2025 at 10:41 AM
New op-ed in @nature.com: The Trump administration's assault on freedoms and the rule of law is an existential threat to US science. We urge scientists to speak out in defense of freedoms, not just funding. With Andrea Liu @upenn.edu and Sidney Nagel of UChicago! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
"In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity." MIT News: news.mit.edu/2025/in-down... Paper: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
May 28, 2025 at 2:44 PM
"In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity." MIT News: news.mit.edu/2025/in-down... Paper: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Congrats to Lisa Yang - who founded so many visionary centers at MIT, and other places, to do daring and creative research with huge amounts of real-world impact - for being named to the TIME 100 Philanthropy list, for 2025! Grateful to be part of the Yang Tan Collective. time.com/collections/...
TIME100 Philanthropy: K. Lisa Yang
Find out why K. Lisa Yang is on the TIME100 Most Influential People in Philanthropy 2025 list.
time.com
May 22, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Congrats to Lisa Yang - who founded so many visionary centers at MIT, and other places, to do daring and creative research with huge amounts of real-world impact - for being named to the TIME 100 Philanthropy list, for 2025! Grateful to be part of the Yang Tan Collective. time.com/collections/...
New blog at "Engineering {X}," where X = serendipity, understanding, or existence! @clairebookworm.bsky.social, Nina Khera, and I are co-editors. Our first post, "The Dropout Curriculum," asks: what should you learn, to disrupt fields from the outside? engineeringx.substack.com/p/the-dropou...
The Dropout Curriculum
How do you plan what to learn, to solve the problems you care about?
engineeringx.substack.com
May 16, 2025 at 9:49 AM
New blog at "Engineering {X}," where X = serendipity, understanding, or existence! @clairebookworm.bsky.social, Nina Khera, and I are co-editors. Our first post, "The Dropout Curriculum," asks: what should you learn, to disrupt fields from the outside? engineeringx.substack.com/p/the-dropou...
Honored to give the 2025 commencement speech for my amazing high school, the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS) at the University of North Texas (students skip years of high school, and go straight to college). My topic - how to engineer serendipity: www.youtube.com/live/nVknJwk...
May 10, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Honored to give the 2025 commencement speech for my amazing high school, the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS) at the University of North Texas (students skip years of high school, and go straight to college). My topic - how to engineer serendipity: www.youtube.com/live/nVknJwk...