Optogenetics

Engineers have recently focused on trying to emulate the structure of the brain with artificial synapses. Now, a team of researchers have made a new artificial synapse design that works using a light-based biotechnology technique called optogenetics.

Currently, if people have urinary problems such as incontinence or an overactive bladder, medication and/or electronic nerve-stimulating implants are required. An experimental new implant may work better, however, treating the problem using integrated micro-LEDs.

The field of optogenetics is all about using light to stimulate cells in the body. Now, researchers from Flinders University have used the technique to shine a light where the Sun don’t shine, stimulating nerves in the gut to relieve chronic constipation.

A new study has opened up a potential pathway to future anti-anxiety treatments after effectively demonstrating the identification of specific "anxiety cells" in the brains of mice and successfully turning those cells on or off with beams of light.

While there's no shortage of glucose-monitoring devices on the market, a team of Chinese scientists is going one step further to make life easier for diabetics. They've created a system that uses a smartphone to direct engineered cells to produce insulin when needed.

Researchers have developed a system that a living dragonfly can wear like a backpack, allowing engineers to steer it remotely to deliver payloads, conduct reconnaissance and even guide pollination.

Laser-activated killer mice? It might not be so far-fetched thanks to new research out of Yale that triggered stalking and biting behaviors in mice by stimulating neurons with light.

A soft, stretchy optical fiber developed at MIT and Harvard appears to be quite a promising candidate for using light to stimulate cells inside the brain, and could possibly even act as an warning light for diseases in other parts of the body.

​Current treatments for arrhythmia involve administering an intense burst of electricity in times of cardiac arrest, but these pulses are painful and harmful. Now scientists have found that beams of light can restore regular heart function, as a gentle and safe alternative to a harsh electric shock.

It was just a couple of years ago that we heard about how scientists were using electrical fields to activate tiny muscle-powered "walking" biological robots – or "bio-bots." Recently, however, the researchers made an improvement: the bio-bots can now be steered using light.​

Before cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's can be found, scientists need a better understanding of how neurons in the brain communicate with one another. Researchers recently took a step towards that goal, by developing the smallest LED probes ever implanted in a living brain.

Optogenetics, where brains cells are made to behave differently when exposed to light, has wide-ranging potential. With one eye on this area of neuroscience, scientists have developed a device the width of a human hair that can be planted in the brain to deliver light or drugs only where needed.