Ligand discrimination in hOR1A1 based on the capacitive response.

Odorant discrimination mechanisms are based on the differential interactions between odorant molecules and olfactory receptors (ORs). Biohybrid sensors based on ORs described to date show selectivity towards specific versus non-specific binding of odorants, being unable to distinguish between specific ligands of different affinity. Here we disclose a method that enables odorant discrimination based on the modulation of the capacitive response of the receptor, which allows the differentiation of three high-affinity hOR1A1 agonists.

Brain state identification and neuromodulation to promote recovery of consciousness.

Experimental and clinical studies of consciousness identify brain states (i.e. quasi-stable functional cerebral organization) in a non-systematic manner and largely independent of the research into brain state modulation.

Light-Activated Agonist-Potentiator of GABA Receptors for Reversible Neuroinhibition in Wildtype Mice.

Gamma aminobutyric acid type A receptors (GABARs) play a key role in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS) as drivers of neuroinhibitory circuits, which are commonly targeted for therapeutic purposes with potentiator drugs. However, due to their widespread expression and strong inhibitory action, systemic pharmaceutical potentiation of GABARs inevitably causes adverse effects regardless of the drug selectivity. Therefore, therapeutic guidelines must often limit or exclude clinically available GABAR potentiators, despite their high efficacy, good biodistribution, and favorable molecular properties.

Photo-BQCA: Positive Allosteric Modulators Enabling Optical Control of the M Receptor.

The field of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) research has greatly benefited from the spatiotemporal resolution provided by light controllable, i.e., photoswitchable ligands.

Photoelectrochemical Two-Dimensional Electronic Spectroscopy (PEC2DES) of Photosystem I: Charge Separation Dynamics Hidden in a Multichromophoric Landscape.

We present a nonlinear spectroelectrochemical technique to investigate photosynthetic protein complexes. The PEC2DES setup combines photoelectrochemical detection (PEC) that selectively probes the protein photogenerated charges output with two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES) excitation that spreads the nonlinear optical response of the system in an excitation-detection map. PEC allows us to distinguish the contribution of charge separation (CS) from other de-excitation pathways, whereas 2DES allows us to disentangle congested spectral bands and evaluate the exciton dynamics (decays and coherences) of the photosystem complex.