Two-minute read In this study, researchers cloned the gene for PhoCl, a photo-cleavable protein, into plasmids, placing it between different protein components. When those plasmids were delivered into cells, the cells built the PhoCl-containing protein, and light then activates that protein by physically breaking it. In darkness, PhoCl keeps the attached components covalently connected. But when exposed to violet light near 400 nanometers, it cuts its own protein backbone. Ov