#optogenetics

Gut Life

Labelled the 'second brain', the enteric nervous system throughout the GI tract controls multiple functions. Here, gut neurons manipulated by optogenetics – activating cells using light via engineered genes – have been grown in the lab as a gut organ culture system as a model to study microbial and neuronal signals, providing evidence that these signals integrate to influence gut immunity and gut lining barrier defence

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Gitali Naim, Hadar Romano-Zadaka and Sivan Amidror, and colleagues

The Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Published in Nature Communications, November 2025

Light and smells can turn flies into remote-controlled near-automatons.

Fruit flies can be made to act like miniature robots

After 40 years of blindness, a 58-year-old man can once again see images and moving objects, thanks to an injection of light-sensitive proteins into his retina.

The study, published on 24 May in Nature Medicine, is the first successful clinical application of a technique called optogenetics, which uses flashes of light to control gene expression and neuron firing. The technique is widely used in laboratories to probe neural circuitry and is being investigated as a potential treatment for pain, blindness and brain disorders.

The clinical trial, run by the company GenSight Biologics, headquartered in Paris, enrolls people with retinitis pigmentosa (RP): a degenerative disease that kills off the eye’s photoreceptor cells, which are the first step in the visual pathway. In a healthy retina, photoreceptors detect light and send electrical signals to retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), which then transmit the signal to the brain. GenSight’s optogenetic therapy skips the damaged photoreceptor cells entirely by using a virus to deliver light-sensitive bacterial proteins into the RGCs, allowing them to detect images directly.

1. Optogenetics is a technique that uses light to control cells in living tissue.

2. It is based on the discovery that some bacteria and algae can produce light-sensitive proteins.

3. These proteins can be inserted into other cells, where they can be used to control the cell's activity.

4. Optogenetics has been used to control a variety of cell types, including neurons, muscle cells, and even stem cells.

5. It has a wide range of potential applications, including the treatment of neurological disorders, the study of brain circuits, and the development of new therapeutic techniques.

6. Optogenetics is still a relatively new field, and there are many challenges that need to be addressed before its full potential can be realized.

7. One of the biggest challenges is to find ways to target the light-sensitive proteins to the right cells.

8. Another challenge is to develop ways to deliver the light to the cells deep in the body.

Optogenetic Stimulation of the Motor Cortex Successfully Induced Arm Movements in Monkeys

Aiming laser light into a mouse’s brain can make them “see” lines that aren’t there. This is the first time scientists have created a specific visual perception with lab trickery.

The experiment used optogenetics. This technique uses laser light to activate nerve cells in the brain called neurons. Scientists tweak the neurons to have a light-sensitive protein. This protein prompts the cells to send a signal in response to the light.

Scientists Say: Optogenetics

Optogenetics debuted about 15 years ago. Everyone hoped it would give scientists precise control over perception and the behaviors that follow, says neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth. He helped pioneer the technique. That ability could help unravel big questions, such as how certain groups of brain cells create experiences.