Optogenetics has been heralded as one of the Breakthroughs of the Decade
When I was a kid I played a game with my friends where we imagined what super power we would choose if we somehow had the opportunity to pick one. We then explained how we would use the power, and of course it was always for good because, well, we read a lot of comic books and everybody wanted to be the hero, not the villain. Most of the time we decided on the standard powers like flight, super strength, or invulnerability––obviously Superman had a major influence on us.
However, I was somewhat enamored with the idea of mind control. By which I mean the ability to influence or cause people to behave or even think what I wanted them to. I always thought that the mechanism would be some sort of mystical psychic force, akin to the kind possessed by the leader of the X-Men, Professor X.
As I grew up I regulated such ideas to the realm of comics and alternate universes. That is, until recently when I stumbled across unbelievable new research emerging out of bioengineering that goes by the name of optogenetics (a combination of optics and genetics).
While still in its infancy––it came into existence in 2005––there has been no shortage of excitement around this discovery. The prestigious journal Science heralded it as one of the Breakthroughs of the Decade [PDF].
The technology involves using a virus to genetically modify targeted cells so that they’re sensitive to certain kinds of light. This means that the cell’s processes can be controlled through pulses of light emitted via fiber optic probes. In effect, the cell function can be turned on or off at the whim of the person controlling the light pulses.
The idea behind optogenetics was already up in the air 40 years ago when Francis Crick (yes, the Nobel laureate) speculated that light could be used to control brain cells. But the method wasn’t feasible until Karl Deisseroth, the creator and vanguard of optogenetics, and his postdoc Ed Boyden invented the necessary tools in their Stanford University laboratory.
Interest in optogenetics exploded. Although it’s only seven-years-old, thousands of scientists are using it and Deisseroth is creating an “Optogenetics Innovation Laboratory” that will run workshops for other researchers who want to implement the tool.
Not to mention, the technology involved is also advancing at a fast pace. There are labs developing fiber optic probes that can be wirelessly controlled, but this method is still less than ideal. So, some scientists are already dreaming up of how to create even less intrusive ways of optogenetic control by inserting special nanoparticles in the brain that can emit the light needed to affect cells.
Deisseroth sums up the possibilities in a Scientific American article on the subject: “What excites neuroscientists about optogenetics is control over defined events within defined cell types at defined times. . .Optical control over defined biochemical events is now also being explored in many laboratories, and opens the door to optogenetics in essentially every cell and tissue in biology.”
If everything still sounds too sci-fi for you, then how about this for proof of concept. A study published last month in the journal Current Biology reports on the first time that researchers were able to use optogenetics to influence a primate’s behavior.
At this point the intended applications of optogenetic control are not only focused on expanding our knowledge of neuroscience, but also on creating an effective medical tool.
For example, studies on mice show how optogenetics can be used to stimulate dopamine-making neurons, which are associated with reward and pleasure. By essentially flipping on the dopamine switch with light pulses, doctors hope to treat ailments like Parkinson’s disease and depression that are partially caused by dopamine deficiency. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Being able to hone in on specific cells with laser precision may be an important step to treating disorders like schizophrenia and autism.
What’s more, two years ago the military super science agency DARPA initiated a project that uses optogenetics. In true futuristic fashion, the project has the snappy acronym of REPAIR: Reorganisation and Plasticity to Accelerate Injury Recovery. The research team will use optogenetics to develop an implant designed to help soldiers recover from brain injuries by stimulating and redirecting the electrical signals between neurons in the brain.
If everything pans out then optogenetics is bound to change the lives of people who would otherwise have to spend their days suffering unfortunate mental conditions or brain injuries. But just as with any emerging technology, we should think about the ethical and social implications before we get too blinded by the hype.
No matter how admirable the intentions, when a technology allows for something as massive as “hacking” an optogeneticically modified person then the possible ethical issues are never ending.
For instance, there are already a slew of moral arguments that surround committing mentally unstable individuals to asylums against their will. Such concerns are only amplified by using optogenetic control to manipulate their minds and restrict their thoughts and behaviors at the deepest level. Even if it’s done in a completely unobtrusive and unnoticeable manner.
These issues would take too much time to explore in this article, but there’s no doubt that this powerful technology warrants a thorough analysis. So here’s my recommendation for how to take all the potential problems into consideration as research moves forward.
Optogenetics is still in its early phase, which means that now is the perfect time for ethicists and social scientists to work with optogeneticists. And not just in an armchair fashion where they ponder the consequences of this impressive tool. I mean these two groups should be working together in the lab. This way the optogeneticists become more attuned to casting an eye towards the ethical and social aspects of their work, while the social scientists come to better understand the technology and then shape their own work around this knowledge.
[This article was inspired, in part, by a project funded by the National Science Foundation called Socio-Technical Integration Research (STIR). Based out of Arizona State University, STIR embeds humanist in laboratories around the world so that they can interact with scientists and engineers during the research process and help “integrate broader societal considerations into their work.”]
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