Reverse Lights

Optogenetics shines a light on the brain’s inner workings. It’s a technique that uses tiny beams of light to prompt electrical activity in brain cells, and has allowed neuroscientists to investigate how they work like never before. The process relies on light-sensitive proteins called channelrhodopsins embedded in genetically modified membranes that surround brain cells. The technique is limited by the number of natural channelrhodopsin forms, but a study has now shown two can be altered so they sit upside down in the membrane. This unusual orientation alters their behaviour, such as making them inhibit, rather than activate, cells, and so opens up new possibilities for investigative tinkering. The researchers embedded these new protein forms in a mouse brain’s cells (brain slice pictured, with cells bearing the new tools highlighted in pink), and were able to control the mouse’s behaviour, proving them to be a useful addition to this illuminating toolkit.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Video by Junchol Park and Joshua Dudman
• Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, VA, USA
• Video/image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Cell, October 2018