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In the past few years, scientists have developed ‘photoactivation’ methods that allow protein functions to be switched on by light1,2.

Writing in Nature, Wang et al.3 now describe a photoactivation strategy that is both broadly applicable and minimally perturbs normal protein functions.

Approaches for the photoactivation and photoinhibition of proteins are available, but it is often difficult to apply these without modifying some of the proteins’ activities.

In other photoactivation methods, a key amino-acid residue in the active site is identified and replaced by a modified version of that residue.

The most obvious effect on photoactivation of PV cells is the reduction in the firing of pyramidal cells.