TY - JOUR T1 - An open-hardware platform for optogenetics and photobiology JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/055053 SP - 055053 AU - Karl P. Gerhardt AU - Evan J. Olson AU - Sebastian M. Castillo-Hair AU - Lucas A. Hartsough AU - Brian P. Landry AU - Felix Ekness AU - Rayka Yokoo AU - Eric J. Gomez AU - Prabha Ramakrishnan AU - Junghae Suh AU - David F. Savage AU - Jeffrey J. Tabor Y1 - 2016/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/05/24/055053.abstract N2 - In optogenetics, researchers use light and genetically encoded photoreceptors to control biological processes with unmatched precision. However, outside of neuroscience, the impact of optogenetics has been limited by a lack of user-friendly, flexible, accessible hardware. Here, we engineer the Light Plate Apparatus (LPA), a device that can deliver two independent 310 to 1550 nm light signals to each well of a 24-well plate with intensity control over three orders of magnitude and millisecond resolution. Signals are programmed using an intuitive web tool named Iris. All components can be purchased for under $400 and the device can be assembled and calibrated by a non-expert in one day. We use the LPA to precisely control gene expression from blue, green, and red light responsive optogenetic tools in bacteria, yeast, and mammalian cells and simplify the entrainment of cyanobacterial circadian rhythm. The LPA dramatically reduces the entry barrier to optogenetics and photobiology experiments. ER -