Optogenetics
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Optogenetics (from Greek optikós], meaning “seen, visible”) is a biological technique which involves the use of light to control cells in living tissue, typically neurons, that have been genetically modified to express light-sensitive ion channels. It is a neuromodulation method employed in neuroscience that uses a combination of techniques from optics and genetics to control and monitor the activities of individual neurons in living tissue—even within freely-moving animals—and to precisely measure the effects of those manipulations in real-time.[1] The key reagents used in optogenetics are light-sensitive proteins. Neuronal control is achieved using optogenetic actuators like channelrhodopsin, halorhodopsin, and archaerhodopsin, while optical recording of neuronal activities can be made with the help of optogenetic sensors for calcium (GCaMP), vesicular release (synaptopHluorin), neurotransmitter (GluSnFRs), or membrane voltage (Arclightning, ASAP1).[2] [3] Control or recording is confined to genetically defined neurons and performed in a spatiotemporally precise manner by light.
The earliest approaches for optogenetic control were developed and applied by Boris Zemelman and Gero Miesenböck,[4][5] at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and Dirk Trauner, Richard Kramer and Ehud Isacoff at the University of California, Berkeley; these methods conferred light sensitivity but were never reported to be useful by other laboratories due to the multiple components these approaches required. A distinct single-component approach involving microbial opsin genes introduced in 2005 turned out to be widely applied, as described below. Optogenetics is known for the high spatial and temporal resolution that it provides in altering the activity of specific types of neurons to control a subject’s behaviour.
In 2010, optogenetics was chosen as the “Method of the Year” across all fields of science and engineering by the interdisciplinary research journal Nature Methods.[6] At the same time, optogenetics was highlighted in the article on “Breakthroughs of the Decade” in the academic research journal Science.[7] These journals also referenced recent public-access general-interest video Method of the year video and textual SciAm summaries of optogenetics. More

Optogenetics is a technology that most investors probably haven’t heard of. The first time we heard of it was while researching the top emerging technologies as listed by four leading authorities in this space. The World Economic Forum listed optogenetics as one of the top 10 emerging technologies of 2016. The first thing that we do when encountering a new technology is to try and explain it in layman’s terms which is a prerequisite to being able to invest in it. We also found out that there is some fascinating drama created around the inventor of this technology and the whole thing just turned out to be a really interesting topic. More