Optogenetic Muscle Construct (Light-Addressable Contractile Tissue)
Engineered muscle carrying a channelrhodopsin so that contraction is triggered by patterned light rather than a field electrode, giving spatial addressing no electrode pair can provide.
| Category | Engineered Contractile Tissue |
|---|---|
| Unit | One light-addressable engineered muscle construct, or a batch delivered in its casting device |
| Lead time | quote-dependent; line construction and validation alone is a multi-week programme before any tissue is cast |
| Pricing | By quotation |
| Provenance | Custom RFQ |
| Data current | 2026-09-03 |
Description
Optical control buys one thing electrodes cannot supply at any price: spatial addressing. An electrode pair puts a field across the whole well and every excitable cell in it contracts together. A projected light pattern activates the myotubes it is aimed at and leaves their neighbours alone. The published record establishes the format works and bounds what it delivers. Sakar and colleagues built ChR2-expressing myoblasts into 3D microtissues on a skeletal-muscle-on-a-chip device and activated single myotubes individually and as a group with pulsed blue light, reporting active force of 1.41 plus or minus 0.25 micronewtons against a static tension of 10.8 plus or minus 0.18 micronewtons. Raman and colleagues reported a modular light-controlled bioactuator reaching up to 300 micronewtons, about 0.56 kilopascals, of active tension under non-invasive optical stimulus. Bruegmann and colleagues quantified the honest efficiency penalty in explanted muscle from ChR2-transgenic mice: 5 millisecond light pulses at 30 hertz produced the largest tetanic contractions, reaching 84 percent of the maximal force induced by electrical stimulation. That 84 percent figure was measured in explanted transgenic mouse muscle rather than in a cultured engineered construct and should not be assumed to transfer. No supplier sells a pre-made optogenetic muscle actuator. What is purchasable is the opsin plasmid, at a published repository rate with an MTA, and the parental cells, at a published catalogue rate. The expensive part is the middle: viral packaging or transfection, antibiotic selection, clone picking, expression validation, and the step groups consistently forget, confirming the modified cells still fuse into functional myotubes. An optogenetic line that has lost its myogenic capacity is a very expensive way to make nothing. There are also two licensing chains here rather than one, the opsin and the cell line, and both must permit the intended use.
Why this is hard to buy today
An optogenetic actuator carries two independent licensing chains, the opsin MTA and the parental cell line terms, and both must permit the intended use for the object to be commercially viable at all. Neither chain is resolvable at the point of purchase: the repository sells the plasmid for under a hundred dollars academic while distributing it under depositor-specific agreements that differ construct by construct, and whether a stably transduced myoblast line counts as a permitted derivative is a question the storefront does not answer. Groups therefore build the line first and discover the reach-through terms afterwards.
Price evidence
No supplier sells a pre-made optogenetic muscle construct, so this item is quote only and unpriced. Two of the four required inputs are catalogue items with published prices and two are unpriced work, and that asymmetry is the point. Priced inputs, observed 2026-09-01: Addgene published repository rates, $94.00 per plasmid academic or nonprofit and from $243.00 for industry or for-profit, with a 20 microgram DNA preparation at $413.00 academic and $614.00 industry, the repository holds hundreds of ChR2 constructs including the Boyden lab pAAV-Syn-ChR2(H134R)-GFP, plasmid 58880. ATCC C2C12 mouse myoblast line, catalogue CRL-1772, $577.00, confirmed against the live product page on 2026-09-01. Casting hardware, eNUVIO live WooCommerce Store API observed 2026-09-01: OMEGA-MP 3D Skeletal Muscle Culture Device, catalogue eN-omp-001, $440.00 for 4 devices giving 8 experiments, whose open-top chambers give the optical access this route requires. Unpriced work: the genetic modification itself, packaging, transduction, selection, clone screening and validation, is quote only at every provider surveyed and typically exceeds the plasmid cost by a wide margin; and light delivery, meaning source, wavelength filtering, optics, patterning and control electronics, has no comparable published pricing in any form and none is estimated here. Published force figures are performance references from named studies under their original conditions, not prices and not transferable between constructs: 1.41 plus or minus 0.25 micronewtons active force with 10.8 plus or minus 0.18 micronewtons static tension (Sakar et al. 2012); up to 300 micronewtons, about 0.56 kilopascals, active tension (Raman et al. 2016); 84 percent of maximal electrically induced tetanic force at 5 millisecond pulses at 30 hertz, measured in explanted ChR2-transgenic mouse muscle rather than an engineered construct (Bruegmann et al. 2015).
These are supplier list prices we located and recorded, not a quotation from Wetware World. Your price depends on quantity, specification and freight, and is only binding once issued in writing.
What you must specify
A quote cannot be produced without these. Anything you leave open, a supplier will assume, usually expensively.
| # | Parameter |
|---|---|
| 01 | Opsin choice and variant, and the excitation wavelength that follows from it |
| 02 | Delivery method for the construct (lentiviral, AAV, transfection) and whether a stable line is required |
| 03 | Parental cell source and whether it must remain fusion-competent after modification, which must be verified explicitly |
| 04 | Light delivery: source, wavelength, irradiance at the tissue, pulse width, frequency and duty cycle |
| 05 | Whether spatial patterning is required, and at what addressable resolution |
| 06 | Force requirement in micronewtons under optical stimulus, with the measurement protocol stated |
| 07 | Tissue geometry, cross-sectional area and anchor type |
| 08 | Both licensing chains: the opsin MTA and the parental cell line terms, and whether each permits the intended commercial use |
| 09 | Institutional biosafety approval status for the genetic modification |
Quality documentation
Typically available with this item. What actually ships is confirmed on the quotation, per supplier.
- Opsin expression validation in the modified line
- Confirmation that the modified cells retain myogenic fusion capacity
- Optically evoked contraction demonstrated, with the stimulation parameters recorded
- Force measurement under optical stimulus against a stated criterion, to be negotiated into the contract
- Viability, sterility and a photographic record per unit
- Documentation of both material transfer agreements
Candidate suppliers
Organisations we have identified as capable. Listing does not imply a partnership, an endorsement, or that they have agreed to quote.
| Organisation | Basis for inclusion |
|---|---|
| Addgene | Nonprofit plasmid repository holding hundreds of channelrhodopsin constructs including pAAV-Syn-ChR2(H134R)-GFP, plasmid 58880, deposited by the Boyden lab. Published rates distinguish academic or nonprofit from industry or for-profit, which signals that the commercial dimension is live before the MTA is read. Rates observed 2026-09-01. |
| ATCC | Live product page fetched 2026-09-01. C2C12 mouse myoblast line CRL-1772 returns a published USD price on the page and in the embedded product data; the default starting cell for skeletal biohybrid work. |
| eNUVIO (custom microfabrication) | Advertises design, prototyping and cleanroom production of custom PDMS devices with features in the 1 micrometre range, high aspect ratio moulding, glass bonding and surface modification, from a few custom devices to large batch production. Quote form only. Relevant here because optical access constrains device design. |
| eNUVIO (contract research) | Service list explicitly includes 3D muscle cultures and 2D-3D neuromuscular junction models, and states the company develops customised assays rather than offering off-the-shelf ones. A live quote channel for the casting and maturation work; execution against an optical force specification is unproven. |
| Creative Biolabs | Advertises a Muscle-On-A-Chip Model Development Service providing customised in vitro 3D skeletal muscle models, will use patient cells or CRISPR-engineer mutations, and will tailor device design and culture protocols including mechanical stimulation. Execution quality against a force specification is unproven. |
Sources
- https://www.addgene.org/58880/
- https://www.atcc.org/products/crl-1772
- https://enuvio.com/shop/3d-skeletal-muscle-device-omega-mp
- https://enuvio.com/contract-research-services
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3586563/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4822586/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4475236/
doc WW-CT-93467 · rev 2026-09-03 · research use only · prices indicative and not binding until quoted in writing