Patent ID: 8480662

Claim:
An intravascular catheter for optical ablation of tissue in a living body having mammalian cells having an exogenously delivered optically regulatable transcription control element that is upregulated upon light emission and mammalian cells that lack the exogenously delivered optically regulatable transcription control element, the catheter comprising: a distal end; a proximal end; an elongate catheter body coupled between the distal end and the proximal end; a light emission device at the distal end and configured to emit light having characteristics including a wavelength and an intensity selected to ablate the mammalian cells having the exogenously delivered optically regulatable transcription control element that is upregulated upon near infrared light emission but not to ablate the mammalian cells that lack the exogenously delivered optically regulatable transcription control element, wherein the emitted light is near infrared light; a location device including a magnetic field location sensor at the distal end and configured to sense a location signal indicative of a location of the distal end; a projection control mechanism coupled to the light emission device and configured to project light that is perpendicular to the elongate catheter body where the optically regulatable transcription control element is effectively regulatable by the light projected from the light emission device; and a radio-frequency (RF) ablation device including a thermal energy emitter at the distal end and configured to generate a thermal energy suitable for ablating the tissue using an RF signal.