Waveguide Micro-probes for Optical Control of Excitable Cells

Optogenetics is the safe, effective delivery of light-gated membrane proteins to neurons and other excitable cells (e.g., muscle, immune cells, pancreatic cells, etc.) in an enduring fashion, thus making the cells permanently sensitive to being activated or silenced by millisecondtimescale pulses of blue and yellow light, respectively . This ability to modulate neural activity with a temporal precision that approaches that of the neural code itself holds great promise for human health and for studies of brain function and interconnectivity.