Optogenetics in Diabetic Mice

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Swiss scientist have been working with a way to control how kidneys regulate glucose by grafting eye cells and optic fiber into the kidney's of mice. When exposed to blue light the cells are triggered to produce proteins beneficial to sugar breakdown via melanopsin molecules from the eye.

"When I speak to diabetes patients they say that if you could take away always having to inject themselves it would really increase their quality of life," said lead author Martin Fussenegger, a bioengineer of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich.

Dr Fussenegger thought he saw a solution in his own field of optogenetics. Optogenetics, as the name suggests, uses light to control the behavior cells.

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13892390