Plexon Inc Announces Major Sale to Dr. Joe Tsien of Medical College of Georgia nd IBFG, Shanghai, China
06-24-2008
Plexon Inc Announces Major Sale to Dr. Joe Tsien of Medical College of
Georgia and IBFG, Shanghai, China
DALLAS-(Business Wire)
Plexon, Inc., www.plexon.com, Dallas-based developer of neurotechnology research systems, is pleased to announce the sale of over $1.2 million in neuroscience research equipment, including several of Plexon's acclaimed Multi-channel Acquisition Processor (MAP) systems, to Dr. Joe Tsien, Ph.D., Co-director of the Brain Discovery Institute, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Systems Neurobiology, and Professor of Neurology at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.
Dr. Tsien's purchase spans the entire Plexon product line, including headstage amplifiers, multiple 128-channel MAP boxes, four of which are synchronized to function as a combined 512-channel system, real-time acquisition and offline spike sorting software for multi-trodal electrodes, as well as newly-developed CinePlex™ video tracking and behavioral analysis software. Dr. Tsien uses Plexon MAP equipment and software for acquiring and analyzing the spike action and local field potentials from implanted microelectrodes in mice and other animals.
"We considered two other suppliers before choosing Plexon," Dr. Tsien said. "However, our positive experience in working with Plexon over the past seven years, combined with their system's ease-of-use, superior functionality and flexibility in responding to our particular research requirements made Plexon the clear choice."
Dr. Tsien cited Plexon's superior online data display, stereotrode and tetrode spike sorting ability, willingness to synchronize multiple MAP systems to achieve high-density recording, and increased video capture speed and processing capability as specific points of difference for selecting Plexon. He also collaborates with a group of neuroscience researchers at the Shanghai Institute of Brain Functional Genomics who use the same Plexon equipment; this common technological platform facilitates the seamless sharing of information and transition of people across continents.
Dr. Tsien will employ the new equipment in his continued study of how the brain processes, modifies and stores information related to episodic memory and cognition. His recent experimental discoveries were featured in the March 2005 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the July 2007 cover story of Scientific American and the March 2008 issue of Der Spiegel newsweekly.
"By studying high density recordings of neuronal ensembles in genetically engineered mouse models, we hope to gain a window of understanding into the mechanisms by which diseases such as Alzheimer's interfere with information processing in the brain," Dr. Tsien said. He will use the new Plexon equipment to record simultaneous neural activity in multiple brain regions.
Dr. Tsien gained fame in 1999 when he created a genetically enhanced smart mouse known as "Doogie" at Princeton University. Doogie performed substantially better than other mice on recognition memory tests. That year, Dr. Tsien made the cover of Time magazine, and his work was named among Science magazine's top 10 scientific breakthroughs.
"We have been a trusted supplier of Dr. Tsien since his first purchase with us at Princeton University in 2003," said Sherman Wiebe, Ph.D., Plexon Director of Sales and Marketing. "Since then, we have followed his program to East China Normal University in Shanghai, to Boston University and now the Medical College of Georgia. This sale marks the natural progression of that continuing relationship." Plexon is currently working with Dr. Tsien to develop a new set of automated video-based behavioral analyses within the Plexon CinePlex&TM; platform.
Harvey Wiggins, who invented the MAP system, or "Harvey Box" as it is widely known today, founded Plexon in 1983. The company currently works with more than 400 research labs, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and universities worldwide, and provides a full line of neural data acquisition equipment and analysis software, video recording and tracking systems, headstage amplifiers, electrodes, electrode microdrives and other innovations and accessories for electrophysiological research. The original development work on the MAP system was funded as an SBIR grant from the NIH Neural Prosthesis Program under the direction of Dr. William Heetderks.
For more information about Plexon or the MAP system, contact Sherman Wiebe at 214-369-4957 or visit www.plexon.com.