Good things come in threes

A study led by IBEC in collaboration with ICFO has unveiled a method to control brain activity in vivo with infrared light using drugs activated by three-photon excitation. This technique activates specific neurotransmitter receptor proteins using tissue-penetrating light of 1560 nm (in the mid infrared region of the spectrum, the longest reported photoswitching wavelength) and offers unparalleled pharmacological and spatiotemporal precision in three dimensions. The findings (Rosalba Sortino et al., 2023) build upon previous pioneering work of IBEC in two-photon pharmacology (Mercè Izquierdo-Serra et al., 2014; Silvia Pittolo et al., 2019; Gisela Cabré, Aida Garrido-Charles et al., 2019; Fabio Riefolo et al., 2019) and open new frontiers for neurobiological circuit research and to develop light-based noninvasive neuromodulation therapies.