UC SAN DIEGO SCHOOL OF MEDICINEOver the past five years, optogenetics—a method for stimulating genetically engineered neurons with light—has taken the life sciences by storm. Now researchers also have the option of engineering subsets of neurons and activating them with ultrasound, according to a study published today (September 15) in Nature Communications. Researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, have used the method, dubbed “sonogenetics,” to control the movements of nematode worms.
Study coauthor Sreekanth Chalasani, a molecular neurobiologist at the Salk Institute, explained that sonogenetics will complement optogenetics, as sound can travel deep into the brain unimpeded while light scatters when it hits opaque tissues. People using optogenetics in mammals, for instance, must surgically insert a probe, whereas stimulation with ultrasound will require no such surgery. “This is noninvasive,” Chalasani said.
“It’s the first demonstration of this genetic enhancement of ultrasound neurostimulation,” said Stephen Baccus, a neurobiologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.
“It’s an awesome study because it really opens up new possibilities for how we modulate biology,” said Jamie Tyler, a neuroscientist at Arizona State University who led the first group to directly stimulate neurons with ...
