THE beating rhythm of human heart cells can be controlled using light. Researchers at Stanford University in California inserted a gene found in algae into human embryonic stem cells, then made the cells differentiate into heart muscle cells. The gene produces a light-sensitive protein called channelrhodopsin-2, which allows the cells to be switched on or off using pulses of light (Biophysical Journal, DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2011.08.004)
The technique could one day be used to activate pacemaker cells derived from a person's own body. "We would inject these engineered light-sensitive cells into the faulty heart," says co-author Christopher Zarins, "and pace them remotely with light."
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