It is widely known that success in science is difficult to achieve. What is the key to success?

Formulating the right scientific question is essential - it is the foundation of any investigation. One must create the conditions necessary for research, which requires a great deal of work, and perseverance is indispensable throughout. Scientific work cannot be done without a sense of vocation. Courage is needed to realize new ideas, and sometimes old dogmas must be challenged. The world is changing, and today it is also important that research delivers measurable social and economic benefits - that it leads to real progress in a given direction. Figuratively speaking, while in the past many researchers spent their time counting ‘cricket hairs’ and ended up with vast amounts of data they could not use, today we must find focus so our attention does not scatter, and we can achieve tangible results.

Why is brain function at the center of your research?

Just a decade or two ago, we had very limited knowledge about the brain, even though it governs all processes in the body. There is hardly a more exciting field! We have long suspected a close relationship between brain function and the immune system. Today, scientific evidence confirms that, for example, when we are happy, our immune system can function two to three times more efficiently. This has evolutionary roots: when early humans found food - a source of happiness - they also risked ingesting bacteria along with it. As a result, the immune system ‘preemptively’ prepared itself and shifted into higher gear. This also means that depression leads to underperformance of the immune system and may contribute to the development of diseases.

How would you define your own scientific mission?

Since childhood, I have wanted to develop methods that go beyond the scope of a single medical practice. I decided early on that I wanted to help a large number of patients. I am proud that the instruments we have developed with my colleagues are now used in leading laboratories and universities around the world -such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Oxford, Cambridge, and universities in Singapore and Shanghai. Our 3D laser microscope enables researchers to understand brain function and disease mechanisms far more effectively than previous tools.

Where does this sense of mission come from?

My father was a surgeon, and he often allowed me to assist in his work. I attended an experimental primary school in Újlengyel, in Pest County - it was a wonderful place. The teachers were highly qualified and placed great emphasis on nurturing talent. I was always drawn to the natural sciences: physics, mathematics, biology, and chemistry. Seeing that I could handle simpler tasks, my teachers would assign more complex ones. This kind of support proved decisive throughout my career. Thanks to my achievements in national and international competitions, I was admitted to the prestigious Fazekas Mihály Secondary School. Constant challenges and the need to find solutions taught me that nothing is impossible - everything can be solved. My competition results also allowed me to enter Semmelweis University and Eötvös Loránd University without entrance exams.

It is quite unusual to complete medical and physics studies simultaneously, as you did.

I first spent a year in medical school, then enrolled in physics alongside it, and also attended some courses at the Technical University. Balancing the two universities was challenging, but I received a great deal of support from my professors. I was the first to be granted an individual study schedule, and my competition results exempted me from certain exams. Multidisciplinary thinking - integrating different scientific fields - has never been difficult for me. Medicine, physics, and mathematics are closely interconnected in my work. For example, the brain is constantly moving and pulsating, which interferes with measurements. We must perform calculations and design physics-based experiments to create motion compensation systems that enable more precise measurements.

Developing the 3D microscope marked the first major milestone in your career. What made this device unique?

One of its applications is in neurosurgery, another in ophthalmology and vision correction. The key innovation is that measurement speed is four to five times faster, allowing us to scan signals in a given brain region much more quickly and sensitively. To illustrate, imagine the large black cameras of the late 19th century, which required subjects to remain still for long exposures. Our device works more like modern high-speed cameras, capable of capturing a Formula 1 car traveling at 300 km/h - not as a blur, but in full detail, even in motion.

What does this mean in practical terms?

To develop new drugs for diseases linked to specific brain regions, we must better understand how the brain functions. This requires more precise and detailed information. Our 3D laser microscope can observe the brain at the cellular level and visualize its activity in real time. It enables measurements that are a million times faster than classical laser-scanning microscopes. In other words, it can map a brain region within milliseconds - the same timescale as brain activity itself. It can also penetrate deeper into living, functioning tissue. With it, we can identify at the cellular level where conditions such as epilepsy or Parkinson’s disease originate. We can find the “first domino” - the specific cell responsible for triggering the cascade. In a sense, we can read and write in the brain, drawing precise and concrete conclusions.

What are your goals in the field of vision improvement?

We are working with world-renowned Hungarian neurobiologist Botond Roska. A key question is whether the tools developed over the past 10–15 years - capable of both measuring and activating tissue - can be applied to vision-related diseases where the problem lies not in the eye but in the brain. Can we project images back into the visual system in cases of blindness, similar to what we see in the film The Matrix? That is what we are working on: restoring visual information directly into the brain of visually impaired individuals. We can activate the cells responsible for vision - essentially projecting information into the brain - thereby restoring some degree of sight. Not perfectly sharp images, but contours that allow orientation. This is still a tremendous achievement, considering that the alternative is complete blindness.

Your work clearly requires great patience and perseverance.

In the early 2000s, we could only dream of measuring brain activity due to a lack of proper tools: we had to wait twenty years for this to become reality. We have also reached another important milestone in our vision research. In experiments with mice, we were able to measure what happens in the brain. Contrary to previous assumptions, we demonstrated that they do not perceive the world in spatial terms.

You are also active as a lecturer at Pázmány Péter Catholic University. Why is supporting young talent important to you?

I enjoy working with intelligent, curious PhD students. It is mutually beneficial: talented students influence me as well - we learn from each other. Young researchers who join us are immediately involved in real projects, and we expect a high degree of independence. But persistent, confident progress always yields results.

Profile

Dr. Balázs Rózsa is a physician, physicist, and inventor. Alongside Botond Roska, he is a co-founder and co-owner of the BrainVisionCenter research center, head of a research group at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, and a professor at Pázmány Péter Catholic University. At the Faculty of Information Technology and Bionics, he has been a long-standing lecturer in the Info-Bionics Engineering MSc and the Medical Biotechnology MSc programmes, contributing to the education of the next generation of interdisciplinary researchers. He is also the head of the Neural Circuits and Computation Laboratory, where cutting-edge research and education are closely integrated. In addition, he serves as a PhD supervisor in the University’s doctoral school, mentoring young researchers in advanced neuroscience and bioengineering topics.

Widely regarded as one of the most promising young researchers of the 2010s, he and his colleagues were the first to develop a three-dimensional laser microscope, achieving a breakthrough in brain research. He holds more than fifty internationally registered patents - primarily related to neuroscience - many of which are world novelties. His innovations contribute not only to the treatment of blindness but also to the diagnosis and therapy of neurological disorders such as epilepsy, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease.

Source: The Hungarian version of this article was originally published on Szabad Föld online. Available at https://szabadfold.hu/interju/2026/04/megallitani-az-elso-dominot