Stanford Team Re-Engineering Brain Cells to be Controlled by Lasers

[The Golden and Black Sun]

June 30, 2009

Scientists are working on genetically engineered laser-controlled brain cells. You could take the adjectives from five scifi books, roll them into a ball and shoot them through a hyperbole gun and STILL not come up with something so incredible sounding. The work could utterly revolutionize neurotherapy, psychology, and the goopy goo of "you" inside that bone basket you carry around on top of your neck.

Stanford scientist Dr Deisseroth and colleagues work on the awesome idea of "optogenetics", re-engineering cells to be controlled by light. This means they can access deep brain tissues with needles and fiber-optics, instead of the traditional knives and implants that make brain surgery such a serious proposition.

Making the science sound even more fictiony, the genes which have been virally injected into existing cells are derived from light-sensitive algae and some salt-dwelling extremophiles (lifeforms capable of surviving in environments fatal to almost everything else.) If movie logic is to be believed, this would turn the patient into a infectiously shambling photosynthetic plant-zombie who raids kitchens. Luckily it isn't, and instead you end up with a brain structure that can be turned on or off by pulses of yellow or blue light (giving a whole new meaning to "feeling blue.")

The work is progressing well in trials on mice, and turns up in Nature every time they decide to report something - so at least somebody knows that "Method of mood control via laser, including moods other than 'vaporized'", is a big deal.

Deisseroth Lab: http://www.stanford.edu/group/dlab/
Laser-brain: http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/enhanced/enhanced-optogenetics


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