Optogenetics and Chemogenetics in Intercellular Signaling: Current Methods and Trends

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editor

Austin Adkins

University of Colorado- Anschutz Medical Campus, Department of Pediatrics, Section of Developmental Biology

Dr. Austin Adkins received his B.S. in Marine Biology from Old Dominion University in 2017. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. from the Center of Integrative Neuroscience and Inflammatory Diseases, Department of Pathology and Anatomy, at Eastern Virginia Medical School in 2020 and 2023, respectively. There, he worked in the Sleep Laboratory under Drs. Larry D. Sanford and Laurie L. Wellman and described the mechanisms by which the sleep and neuroimmune systems are linked and integrated during the stress response. Specifically, using optogenetics in rodents, he characterized the regulatory role of the basolateral amygdala by showing amygdalar outputs influenced regional communication, local immune responses, and metabolic profiles of other regions within the greater stress-responsive circuit. Furthermore, he showed how these alterations may modulate other systems, such as learning and memory, and behavioral outputs, and their relevance for psychiatric diseases/disorders. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Charles Sagerström studying the role of unique transcription factors that are critical for hindbrain development but also play key roles in sleep, immunity, and learning and memory in adulthood. He hopes to define the link between mutations in these transcription factors linked to neurodevelopmental disorders, and how they may be associated with these individuals’ predisposition for sleep, immune, memory, and behavioral comorbidities later in life.

Collection Overview

Optogenetics is a tool that utilizes light to control cell types introduced with opsins via viral vectors. Similarly, chemogenetics can control cell types through engineered receptor proteins (DREADDs) expressed on a cell surface, activated exclusively by an exogenous ligand. Both techniques are valuable tools for pinpointing specific cell types within a heterogeneous population, controlling and identifying the biological function of cell groups, understanding intercellular communication, and investigating how cells collaborate.

Historically, the use of optogenetics and chemogenetics has been synonymous with neuroscience research, particularly neuronal manipulation. However, in recent years, alongside technological advancements, these techniques have found application in various research fields. This methods collection aims to provide an overview of commonly used and emerging optogenetic and chemogenetic techniques, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of each. It explores their appropriateness for different study designs and their relevance across various research areas, extending beyond neuroscience. The collection aims to understand the role of specific cell types and intercellular signaling in diverse biological systems in vivo.