Optogenetics: 10 years of microbial opsins in neuroscience

By Karl Deisseroth. 2015

1,170 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Over the past 10 years, the development and convergence of microbial opsin engineering, modular genetic methods for cell-type targeting and optical strategies for guiding light through tissue have enabled versatile optical control of defined cells in living systems, defining modern optogenetics. Despite widespread recognition of the importance of spatiotemporally precise causal control over cellular signaling, for nearly the first half (2005–2009) of this 10-year period, as optogenetics was being created, there were difficulties in implementation, few publications and limited biological findings. In contrast, the ensuing years have witnessed a substantial acceleration in the application domain, with the publication of thousands of discoveries and insights into the function of nervous systems and beyond. This Historical Commentary reflects on the scientific landscape of this decade-long transition.

Subfields: Biomedical Engineering, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Physiology

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Citations in the corpus

Integration of optogenetics with complementary methodologies in systems neuroscience (2017, background): “& Deisseroth, K. eNpHR: a Natronomonas halorhodopsin enhanced for optogenetic applications. Brain Cell Biol. 36, 129–139 (2008). 41. Zalocusky, K. A. et al. Nucleus accumbens D2R cells signal prior outcomes and control risky decisionmaking. Nature 531, 642–646 (2016). 42. Yizhar, O. et al. Neocortic”