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Full article at the link, but this second part is interesting:
QUOTE
With a combination of synthetic biology and optogenetics, researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology published a paper in Science outlining their new technique which enables certain genes to be turned on simply by the switch of a light.
[...]
To test their technique, researchers used diabetic mice and engineered cells to create a glucagon peptide when exposed to blue light. The mice were implanted under the skin with hundreds of microcapsules that held around 10 million of these engineered cells. When the mice were exposed to the blue light, they had an increase in insulin production and more regulated glucose.
While this technique is still in the early stages, there is hope that these light sensitive cells can be used for diabetic treatment and to boost the production of biological drugs which are currently used in cancer treatments.
[...]
To test their technique, researchers used diabetic mice and engineered cells to create a glucagon peptide when exposed to blue light. The mice were implanted under the skin with hundreds of microcapsules that held around 10 million of these engineered cells. When the mice were exposed to the blue light, they had an increase in insulin production and more regulated glucose.
While this technique is still in the early stages, there is hope that these light sensitive cells can be used for diabetic treatment and to boost the production of biological drugs which are currently used in cancer treatments.
