Controlling light-sensitive proteins in living brain tissue

Synopsis

By a straightforward measurement of current output after photostimulation, the authors demonstrated that the amount of neuronal activity associated with Channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) strongly depends on the tailored quantum coherent controlled pulses, signifying that wave properties of matter can be detected for a channel protein in living brain tissue. The result implies that control of cellular activities is possible by manipulating quantum effects. In this talk, I will briefly introduce the experimental setup and the novel control mechanism to modulate neuronal networks. Ref: Paul, Kush, et al. "Coherent control of an opsin in living brain tissue." Nature Physics (2017).