A New Smartphone-Based Optic Nerve Head Biometric for Verification and Change Detection.

Purpose: Lens adapted smartphones are being used regularly instead of ophthalmoscopes. The most common causes of preventable blindness in the world, which are glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, can develop asymptomatic changes to the optic nerve head (ONH) especially in the developing world where there is a dire shortage of ophthalmologists but ubiquitous mobile phones. We developed a proof-of-concept ONH biometric (application [APP]) to use as a routine biometric on a mobile phone.

Designing photoswitchable peptides using the AsLOV2 domain.

Photocontrol of functional peptides is a powerful tool for spatial and temporal control of cell signaling events. We show that the genetically encoded light-sensitive LOV2 domain of Avena Sativa phototropin 1 (AsLOV2) can be used to reversibly photomodulate the affinity of peptides for their binding partners. Sequence analysis and molecular modeling were used to embed two peptides into the Jα helix of the AsLOV2 domain while maintaining AsLOV2 structure in the dark but allowing for binding to effector proteins when the Jα helix unfolds in the light.