Talk:CH391L/S13/Optogenetics

• Gabriel Wu 17:34, 25 February 2013 (EST): In your timeline, add the species name where the rhodopsin was found.
• Gabriel Wu 17:40, 25 February 2013 (EST): There's a reasonable amount of history of optogenetics in synthetic biology as well. Here's a few papers to check out (there's even a UT connection!). [1] [2]

• Evan Weaver 17:06, 26 February 2013 (EST): I edited the History section for readability. There were lots of grammar errors in that giant paragraph.
• Alvaro E. Rodriguez M. 21:35, 28 February 2013 (EST): Another comment, it's important to say what an acronym means, example, I don't know what PRC,RBS mean, etc....I googled it but you get the point, I bet. Also in the table you might want to add the wavelength (i.e. ....nm) that each of these rhodopsins absorbs, meaning if it says Yellow (600 nm). Also do all bacteriorhodopsins absorb yellow light only?

• Thomas Wall 23:02, 25 February 2013 (EST): I agree with Gabe, You did a good job outlining the medical importance of this issue, but there is little synthetic biology discussion. This is the sort of thing I expected here (https://www.openwetware.org/images/7/71/2002_Sato.pdf)

• Dwight Tyler Fields 01:18, 1 March 2013 (EST): You could also make a connection to bioprospecting and conservation, as I'm reading that many of the "tools" in optogenetics come from microbes found in specialized environments [3]
• Catherine I. Mortensen 13:55, 2 March 2013 (EST): Concerning the iGEM project that was done last year, I'm a bit confused about the purpose... Please correct me if I'm wrong, so this is my understanding: this iGEM team used Ccas or LavTAP as regulatory genes which were placed in front of lacZ so that when certain colored lights were shined on the cell, these regulatory genes would either inhibit or activate the expression of lacZ?
• Catherine I. Mortensen 14:06, 2 March 2013 (EST):Could Ccas and LavTAP be used to regulate other genes besides lacZ?
• Catherine I. Mortensen 15:24, 2 March 2013 (EST): There are genes found in algae that produce light-sensitive proteins that can be used to help regulate nerve impulses. The idea is that light-sensistive proteins increase receptiveness of neurons in combination with LED lights. They added this gene from algae to the mice's genome and placed LED lights around certain nerves and found an increase in the fluidity of muscle movement. LED lights have been placed around sciatic nerves to increase fluidity in movement in people suffering from cerebral palsy and have had some success. If this gene from algae were successfully added to the human genome, complete muscle control could be regained in those suffering from cerebral palsy, paralysis, and such. [4]