Switching on genes with burst of blue light

By Jason Major

TechNyou

Diabetic mice in need of insulin need only to bathe under a blue light. Surely better than a needle, though it would feel light regular visits to the tanning salon – not that I would know what a tanning salon is like….

Ed Yong in his latest blog “Not Exactly Rocket Science:” 23 July 2011 – discusses this research in his usual captivating story-telling style, but this is just scratching the surface of a new field with almost scifi characteristics.

Optogenetics

Ed Yong’s story is based on the emerging and fascinating field of optogenetics, which is essentially the ability to control the behaviour of cells or genes with light. It involves the genetic modification of cells and it can involve permanent changes in human genetics, so we are bound to see the rise of the “Yuk Factor” – ie our intuitive response to something unknown, but potentially wrong, even though we don’t know why.

There has been a few stories floating around lately about various projects based on optogenetics. The following will give you a peek into the field’s potential and I would love to know what people think of the potential of this research and which direction they think it should go, if anywhere?

Gero Miesenboeck: Optogeneticist. His Ted Talk on re-engineering the brain

Nature Methods You Tube vid. Optogenetics. You can see some cool applications of the technology here, though I am sure the mouse isn’t happy with the optic fibre coming out of his head and the light making him walk in circles.

New Scientist: Controlling brain cells with lasers

And finally – a consideration of the ethics of optogenetics and similar genetic tinkering- though it takes Paul Wolpe a while to get this the point.