Constructing Smartphone-Controlled Optogenetic Switches in Mammalian Cells

With the increasing indispensable role of smartphones in our daily lives, the mobile health care system coupled with embedded physical sensors and modern communication technologies make it an attractive technology for enabling the remote monitoring of an individual’s health. Using a multidisciplinary design principle coupled with smart electronics, software, and optogenetics, the investigators constructed smartphone-controlled optogenetic switches to enable the ultraremote-control transgene expression. A custom-designed SmartController system was programmed to process wireless signals from smartphones, enabling the regulation of therapeutic outputs production by optically engineered cells via a far-red light (FRL)-responsive optogenetic interface. In the present study, the investigators describe the details of the protocols for constructing smartphone-controlled optogenetic switches, including the rational design of an FRL-triggered transgene expression circuit, the procedure for cell culture and transfection, the implementation of the smartphone-controlled far-red light-emitting diode (LED) module, and the reporter detection assay.