Blue Light Activation Of Gene Expression

Here is an interesting study in which human cells are modified so that they react to blue light exposure with altered gene expression.  This has many implications for gene therapy, as well as for stem cell therapy; for the latter, blue light exposure could be used to make stem cells given to the patient differentiate (i.e., transform into) the type of mature cell needed for the relevant therapy.  Abstract:

Our improved CRISPR-Cas9-based photoactivatable transcription systems, CPTS2.0 and Split-CPTS2.0, enable high blue-light-inducible activation of endogenous target genes in various human cell lines. We achieved reversible activation of target genes with CPTS2.0 and induced neuronal differentiation in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by upregulating NEUROD1 with Split-CPTS2.0