Robotic platform for automated real-time high through-put optogenetics testing

A process for performing optogenetics, comprising:

• placing a cell container loaded with one or more biological samples onto a shaker element;
• performing a shaking program on the cell container with the shaker element;
• illuminating, in accordance with an illumination program, one or more discrete regions of the cell container;
• and
• detecting, using a detector element, one or more signals associated with one or more discrete regions of the sample plate.

A method for selecting an illumination program, comprising:

• a) applying a first illumination program to a biological sample, the first illumination program comprising a first combination of one or more light intensities, one or more light duty cycles, one or more light pulse durations, and one or more light pulse frequencies;
• b) detecting one or more signals from the biological sample;
• c) determining, from the one or more detected signals, an activation state of one or more biological pathways of the biological sample;
• d) based on the detected signal, (i) continuing to apply the first illumination program to the biological sample for a duration of time or (ii) applying a second illumination program to the biological sample;
• and
• e) repeating steps b) to d) until a selected activation state of the biological sample is obtained.