CRISPR-Cas9-based photoactivatable transcription systems to induce neuronal differentiation.
                            
                                blue
                            
                            
                                CRY2/CIB1
                            
                                Magnets
                            
                            
                                
                                    HEK293T
                                
                            
                                
                                    HeLa
                                
                            
                                
                                    human fetal fibroblasts
                                
                            
                                
                                    human IPSCs
                                
                            
                            
                                Cell differentiation
                            
                                Endogenous gene expression
                            
                            
                            
                            
                            
                        
                        
                        
                        
                            Abstract:
                            Our improved CRISPR-Cas9-based photoactivatable transcription systems, CPTS2.0 and Split-CPTS2.0, enable high blue-light-inducible activation of endogenous target genes in various human cell lines. We achieved reversible activation of target genes with CPTS2.0 and induced neuronal differentiation in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by upregulating NEUROD1 with Split-CPTS2.0.