{"doi":"10.17615/x48j-1627","title":"Optogenetic Apoptosis: Light-Triggered Cell Death","abstract":"An optogenetic Bax has been designed that facilitates light-induced apoptosis. We demonstrate that mitochondrial recruitment of a genetically encoded light-responsive Bax results in the release of mitochondrial proteins, downstream caspase 3 cleavage, changes in cellular morphology, and ultimately cell death. Mutagenesis of a key phosphorylatable residue or modification of the C-terminus mitigates background levels (dark) of apoptosis due to Bax overexpression. The mechanism of optogenetic Bax-mediated apoptosis was explored using a series of small molecules known to interfere with various steps in programmed cell death. Optogenetic Bax appears to form a mitochondrial apoptosis-induced channel analogous to that of endogenous Bax.","journal":"Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)","year":2020,"id":142617,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9555,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":514552,"name":"David S. Lawrence","orcid":"0000-0002-5439-4039","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":593356,"name":"Weston J. Smith","orcid":"0000-0003-4333-760X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":598509,"name":"Rebecca M. Pollet","orcid":"0000-0003-2950-6374","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":593355,"name":"Robert M. Hughes","orcid":"0000-0002-4465-4212","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":609103,"name":"David Freeman","orcid":"0000-0002-4288-0785","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":609102,"name":"Kelsey N. Lamb","orcid":"0000-0003-3836-1605","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:17:31.424593Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}