Light acts as environmental signal to control animal behavior at various levels. The Drosophila larval nervous system is used as a unique model to answer basic questions on how light information is processed and shared between rapid and circadian behaviors. Drosophila larvae display a stereotypical avoidance behavior when exposed to light. To investigate light dependent behaviors comparably sim...

BLUF (sensor of blue light using FAD) domain-containing proteins are one of three types of flavin-binding, blue-light-sensing proteins found in many bacteria and some algae. The other types of blue-light-sensing proteins are the cryptochromes and the light, oxygen, voltage (LOV) domain-containing proteins. BLUF proteins control a wide variety of light-dependent physiological activities includin...

The use of optical sensing for in vivo applications is compelling, since it offers the advantages non-invasiveness, non-ionizing radiation, and real-time monitoring. However, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) signal deteriorates dramatically as biological tissue increases. Although increasing laser power can improve SNR, intense lasers severely disturb processes viability. Quantum with bright squeeze...

A novel surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor based on an integrated planar and polychromatic light source is presented. The sensor comprises an organic light emitting diode (OLED) and a metallic sensing layer located on opposite sides of a glass prism. We successfully fabricated and tested prototype sensors based on this approach by the use of different prism geometries and OLEDs with blue, g...