Controlling cells with light

The new drug called Optojasp only becomes active when violet light irradiates it. Image: Jürgen Scheere (University of Jena) - A research team from Jena, Munich and New York develops an active substance that controls an important component of the cytoskeleton with the help of light Light Life Photopharmacology investigates the use of light to switch the effect of drugs on and off. Now, for the first time, scientific teams from Jena, Munich, and New York have succeeded in using this method to control a component of cells that was previously considered inaccessible. Present everywhere and now selectively controllable. "Up to now, there are no drugs available that target actin, because the protein is found everywhere in the body, for example in large quantities in the muscles," explains Prof. Hans-Dieter Arndt of Friedrich Schiller University Jena. "Such a substance would therefore have little to no targeted effect. However, our new compounds only exert activity on actin in areas where cells are exposed to the appropriate light," said Arndt, a researcher in organic chemistry.