Optogenetic system inhibits intracellular membrane vesicle trafficking

Throughout our cells, materials are continuously transported via tiny packets called vesicles.  This process is called intracellular trafficking and it is crucial for the normal functioning of cells.  Controlling intracellular membranes, such as vesicles, is a seemingly impossible proposition, but researchers at the Center for Cognition and Sociality within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) have created an optogenetic process, called "light-activated reversible inhibition by assemb