Photosensors detect a wide variety of colors of light in nature, directing the organism's behaviors and initiating complex processes including movement, reproduction, and growth, amongst others. Often ancient and simple systems, photosensors are now integral in modern biotechnology and biomedical research especially in the field known as optogenetics : turning photons into triggers to turn on neurons, regulate brain pathways, and jumpstart genetic machinery in the target organisms.

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Much of my reserach career has been involved in photosensory proteins from cycnobacteria (cyanobacteriochromes) which absorb light from the near UV to the far-red spectra and are of interest for a variety of biotechnological applications.