This story is not exactly accurate. I was a grad student in the Miesenboeck lab when optogenetics was invented there. Here's what happened behind the scenes. I rotated there in 2001, and Gero said, "Don't tell anyone, but we're stimulating neurons with light." I thought WTF?!? 1/
Based on that statement alone, I joined the lab immediately. Boris Zemelman was using an insect opsin to stimulate neurons in culture, and it worked, but it was slow. Susana Lima was trying to get it working in Drosophila, but it wasn't working well. Boris's paper came out in 2/
