In biomedical sciences, the function of a protein of interest is investigated by altering its net activity and assessing the consequences for the cell or organism. To change the activity of a protein, a wide variety of chemical and genetic tools have been developed. The drawback of most of these tools is that they do not allow for reversible, spatial and temporal control. Here, we describe selected developments in photopharmacology that aim at establishing such control over protein activity through bioactive molecules with photo-controlled potency. We also discuss why such control is desired and what challenges still need to be overcome for photopharmacology to reach its maturity as a chemical biology research tool.

在生物医学科学中，通过改变目标蛋白的净活性并评估其对细胞或生物体的影响来研究目标蛋白的功能。为了改变蛋白质的活性，已经开发了多种化学和遗传工具。这些工具大多数的缺点是它们不允许进行可逆的空间和时间控制。在这里，我们描述了光药理学中的选定发展，旨在通过具有光控效力的生物活性分子建立对蛋白质活性的这种控制。我们还将讨论为什么需要这样的控制，以及光化学作为化学生物学研究工具的成熟，仍然需要克服哪些挑战。