The press announces the new publication of A07: “Design of an ultrafast G protein switch based on a mouse melanopsin variant”. The paper proposes a generally applicable to designing optogenetic tools. The primary goal of optogenetics is the light‐controlled noninvasive and specific manipulation of various cellular processes.
So far, development has been mainly based on a trial-and-error approach. But the novel method might help save a lot of time. “I’m convinced that it will be possible to combine this new melanopsin variant with other optogenetic tools in future, in order to control complex cellular processes,” says Stefan Herlitze. Together with Raziye Karapinar, Melanie D. Mark and Katharina Spoida from A07 he established the new method in a cooperation with other groups.
“Unlike traditional protein engineering methods based on trial-and-error, our approach saves a lot of time thanks to automated computer-aided prognoses that can be calculated on several computers at the same time,” concludes Klaus Gerwert.
© RUB, Kramer