Researchers have found a way to control protein levels inside different tissues of a whole, living animal for the first time. The method lets scientists dial protein levels up or down with great precision during the animal’s entire life, a technological advance which can help them study the molecular underpinnings of aging and disease.

Scientists at the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona and the University of Cambridge successfully tested the technique by controlling how much protein was present in the intestines and neurons of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. Their findings are described in the journal Nature Communications.