Engineering photoreceptors into optogenetic tools for the controland understanding of cellular processes in animal and plantsystems | AIChE

Engineering photoreceptors into optogenetic tools for the controland understanding of cellular processes in animal and plantsystems

Authors 

Zurbriggen, M. - Presenter, University of Freiburg
Our synthetic biology research focuses on engineering bacterial and plant
photoreceptors sensitive to different wavelengths of the white light spectrum (UV-B,
blue, green, red/far-red) into synthetic photoswitches rewired to control molecular
processes with high precision, quantitative and high spatio-temporal resolution, in a
non-invasive way and with minimized toxicity. We implement these molecular tools into
microbial, mammalian and plant cells, and in vivo in animals and plants for selectively
manipulating signaling networks and metabolic pathways. This synthetic biology
approach opens up unforeseen perspectives in fundamental and applied research, as
exemplified hereby in the study of signalling pathways, including those involving plant
photoreceptors, and crop design.