After identifying a large number of candidate plasticity genes (CPGs) (Nedivi E. Nature 1993), we focused on several and characterized their very different activities. We have elucidated the neuronal and synaptic function of two previously unknown CPGs, CPG15 and CPG2, and characterized their very different activities, showing that each provides unique insight into diverse aspects of plasticity mechanisms. The CPG pool remains a trove that can be screened for additional genes of interest, many as yet uncharacterized, prioritized according to mechanistic and/or disease relevance. Motivated by the large number of CPGs that affect neuronal structure, we have a long-standing collaboration with Peter So’s lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT to develop multi-photon microscopy for large volume, high resolution imaging of dendritic arbor and synaptic structural dynamics in vivo.