Multi­plexed Optoge­net­ics with organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs)

Giuseppe Ciccone, young scien­tist and Hector Fellow Academy alumni since fall 2023, is first author of the publi­ca­tion "Multi­plexed Optoge­net­ics with Striped Organic LEDs", which was published in October 2023 in the journal Advanced Optical Materi­als. During his PhD he was super­vised by Hector Fellow Karl Leo. The study is dedicated to the appli­ca­tion of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) in optogenetics.

The publi­ca­tion explains how an innov­a­tive OLED technol­ogy, the so-called microstruc­tured "Dual-Color Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs)", can be used in optoge­net­ics for the targeted stimu­la­tion of living systems and leads to new research results. It enables precise control of neuronal functions with excep­tional cell type speci­ficity. By express­ing multi­ple optoge­netic actua­tors, it is possi­ble to mediate cellu­lar activ­ity through activa­tion and inhibi­tion with a spatial resolu­tion that is rarely achieved by electri­cal and pharma­co­log­i­cal paradigms.

The results show that this technol­ogy is a highly effec­tive method for gener­at­ing complex light patterns for multi-color optoge­net­ics. They form the basis for cell-specific multi­plexed optoge­net­ics in freely moving animals.