Optogenetics is an emerging alternative to traditional electrical stimulation to initiate action potentials in activatable cells both ex vivo and in vivo. In our latest paper, we evaluated the stimulation feasibility and sustain isometric muscle contraction and limit decay for an extended period of time (1s), using non-invasive transdermal light activation of skeletal muscle (triceps surae) in vivo. This work was led by graduate student, Elahe Ganji.

We are excited about this work, which is the first from our group using channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) in skeletal muscle to control muscle activation and for our collaborative efforts with Dr. Savio Chan at Northwestern University and Dr. Chris Ward from the University of Maryland.

This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R03 HD094594 to MLK) and The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01 NS069777 to CSC).