A new generation of optogenetic tools for research and medicine
Villigen, 5.11.2020 - The European Research Council (ERC) is providing 10 million euros in funding for an interdisciplinary, collaborative project in the structural and biophysical analysis of selected photoreceptors and their development into “OptoGPCRs”, light-controlled molecular switches with a wide range of applications in biology and medicine. The ERC Synergy Grant team consists of corresponding principal investigator Gebhard Schertler, head of the Division of Biology and Chemistry at PSI, and his colleagues Peter Hegemann (Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany), Sonja Kleinlogel (University of Bern, Switzerland), and Rob Lucas (University of Manchester, UK). Together they will demonstrate how OptoGPCRs can revolutionise our ability to control a wide variety of complex cellular processes with light.