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In this Hardware Spotlight, we’re learning a lot about neurons and photons from Sam Malanowski, Product Engineer atinscopix。Inscopix制造了一个微型显微镜系统，可让研究人员查看自由表现啮齿动物中的大规模神经回路动力学。
Sam与我们分享了他在多数博士研究人员中担任工程师的经验，Inscopix如何与奥巴马总统的大脑倡议保持一致，以及消费技术行业的发展如何帮助增进生命科学。
Can you tell us a bit about what Inscopix does?
As a company, Inscopix is aimed at advancing the entire field of neuroscience by providing end-to-end solutions of hardware, data analysis software, and scientific support to address entirely new scientific questions. The project was originally a PhD thesis by our two founding team members, Drs. Eric Cocker and Kunal Ghosh, in the lab of Professor Mark Schnitzer at Stanford – they graduated and started the company in 2011. It started off with the goal of imaging a large number of neurons concurrently on a freely behaving animal and we’ve since developed a remarkably small imaging system that can be attached to a mouse and allow it to go about its normal behavior. In the past, this type of imaging could only be done with very large benchtop microscope systems.
What is the significance of your microscope system as compared with the larger benchtop systems?
当啮齿动物能够自由地表现时，科学家就可以解决有关神经电路活动模式如何与特定行为相关的全新问题。将大量神经元的动态与自然动物行为相关联是神经科学家多年来梦over以求的概念。通过使神经科学家能够执行这些类型的实验，我们可以了解与特定行为和神经疾病相关的潜在神经电路模式。
President Obama recently announced the BRAIN initiative to help map the brain as part of the discovery of neurological disease treatments. How does Inscopix fit into this effort?
在映射大脑以及在神经科学研究方面，还有很多事情要做，对新技术有很大的未满足来帮助解决这些问题的需求。我们提供解决方案，使研究人员能够收集他们需要的数据，以开始了解构成我们大脑的1000亿神经元的活动。借助我们今天的技术，科学家已经在了解各种神经系统疾病的动物模型中如何出现神经电路模式如何出现问题。Inscopix的目标是保持这个快速发展的神经科学研究工具市场的最前沿，并继续提供解决方案，使研究人员能够解决全新的科学问题。
“作为一家初创公司的机械工程师，您很快就会发现您不再只是机械工程师。”
What is it like to work as an Engineer amongst a large team of PhD researchers?
这无疑是我有机会与之合作的最令人印象深刻的人之一。感觉我们是一个研究实验室，就像我们是一家硬件创业公司一样。这确实是一种独特的氛围，共同的目标不仅是产品，而且是知识。
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced from the ME side of things?
As a Mechanical Engineer at a startup, you quickly realize you’re not just a Mechanical Engineer anymore. You’re doing it all. For example, last week I had to learn how to use a very expensive oscilloscope to observe high speed data signals and some weeks I do more Python programming than Solidworks.
It’s great that I get to put my hands on all sorts of different things and there’s certainly no shortage of work to be done. When we’re trying to fix issues with our build while simultaneously trying to fix problems with suppliers, add functionality for the customer, tighten up the specs, document everything, and bring on new employees… it’s a whirlwind!
“我意识到仍然有很多关于大脑的了解，因此，发现了很多机会。”
Is your manufacturing outsourced or done in-house?
We outsource the machining and electronics and then do all the final assembly in-house. It takes a lot of care to keep things clean. We’re counting on every photon we can get so we make sure to take care of all the fine detailed work ourselves. Coming from some other products I’ve worked with to here where photons and microns are what matter, it’s thinking on a different scale…literally.
“流行的消费技术产品降低有价值零件的成本的力量令人难以置信。”
您如何制作这种复杂且脆弱的产品的原型？
在快速原型制作方面，我所做的许多工作都用于固定和工具。你们制作了工具，例如，以不同的方式处理我们的微小镜头和工具，以不同的方式将显微镜和其他组件固定来加快制造测试。
由于我们在现场进行制造组件，因此我们需要非常专业的工具和固定装置来高标准测试产品。3D打印确实可以实现这一目标。
有多少次迭代可以到达当前系统？
第一次迭代是斯坦福大学八年跨学科研究的副产品，桥接了神经科学，应用物理，电气工程和机械工程领域。在斯坦福大学进行最初的技术开发之后，到达当前产品的过程是将实验室原型变成一个抛光，可靠的系统，世界各地的神经科学家可以将其用于研究。这项工作的大部分都依赖于可用组件 - 例如，获得足够小的LED和自定义光学元件以及具有足够高分辨率的相机传感器。这不是一件容易的事。
您认为消费技术行业正在帮助降低其中一些组件的成本和规模吗？
Definitely. It’s getting to the point where some of the high-volume customers of these components are starting to really push the tech forward and drive the price down. Sometimes the science community pushes the consumer tech industry forward and sometimes it’s the other way around. The power of a popular consumer tech product to drive down the cost of valuable components is incredible.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job?
我喜欢我们在一个真正的日常消费产品中，这不是iPod，也不是每个人都有其中之一，但会产生巨大的影响。我们和我们的客户发现大脑的事情是您，我可能无法完全理解，但是我们仍然可以感受到影响。
我意识到仍然有很多关于大脑的了解，因此，发现了很多机会。我可以在这个项目上作为一名谦虚的机械工程师制作的任何小型新功能，我知道确实会产生影响。
