Optogenetics
Optogenética
- Date
- 2005 · confidence high
- Place
- Stanford University, California, United States
- Credited to
- Karl Deisseroth, Edward Boyden, Feng Zhang; Georg Nagel and Peter Hegemann (channelrhodopsin), Gero Miesenböck
- People
- 👤 Karl Deisseroth1971–👤 Peter Hegemann1954–
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
By expressing algal channelrhodopsins in neurons they can be activated or silenced with light at millisecond precision, establishing causal relationships between circuits and behaviour.
What it led to
- circuit neuroscience
- causal maps of memory, fear, sleep and addiction
- the first clinical trial in blindness (2021)
Built on
- Green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a genetic marker1992-1994
- microbial rhodopsins
- viral vectors
- transgenic mice
Made possible
- optical control of tissues (heart, pancreas)