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NIH funding research to develop light-sensitive photoswitches for restoring vision

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BERKELEY, Calif. — The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $6 million, 5-year grant to a newly created research center in California to investigate photoswitches for restoring light sensitivity in patients with degenerative blindness, according to a press release.

The NIH awarded the grant to the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Nanomedicine Development Center. The research will focus on using an ultraviolet green light to alter an azobenzene compound — an ion channel found in nerve cells — that changes its shape when illuminated by different light wavelengths. Researchers hope to use the light to turn cells "on" or "off," according to the release.

The grant will help the research group to develop virus vectors for carrying the photoswitches into certain cells. It will also fund research into new types of photoswitches based on other chemical structures and strategies for achieving the desired control of cell processes, according to the release.