Design of in vitro light stimulation device

Optogenetic technology is a novel method which can achieve bidirectional control of neural signals with cell type specific and high spatiotemporally precise. We developed an illumination system to control light sensitive cytoactive based on optogenetic technology. A NE555 driven circuit was utilized to control the high-intensity of a blue or yellow light-emitting diode (LED). The optical wavelength is about 470nm for the blue LED and 590nm for the yellow LED. To supply enough light intensity to activatee the light sensitive cells which were living in the culture dish, the whole LED circuit was integrated into a culture dish.