Understanding the structure and function of our nervous system, and its degeneration and regeneration is one of the greatest scientific, engineering, and medical challenges of the 21st century. The complexity of a single neuron is itself awe inspiring, let alone that of an entire system of neurons. My research focuses on the study and manipulation of neural systems both at the sub-cellular level using neurons derived from animals and human embryonic stem cells, and also at the whole-organism level using C. Elegans and Zebrafish with a simple neural-network. To access these systems, I combine different fields: Optics for micro-surgical manipulation, and multi-photon imaging; microfluidics for high-throughput screening and micro-manipulation; and, molecular-biology for gene-expression control and monitoring.