Current techniques for intracellular electrical interrogation are substrate−bound and are technically demanding, or lack high spatial resolution. In this work, we use silicon nanowires, which are spontaneously internalized by many cell types, to achieve photo−stimulation with sub−cellular resolution. Myofibroblasts loaded with silicon nanowires remain viable and can undergo cell division. Stimulation of silicon nanowires at separate intracellular locations results in local calcium fluxes. We

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... o show that nanowire−containing myofibroblasts can electrically couple to cardiomyocytes in co−culture and that photo−stimulation of the nanowires increases the spontaneous activation rate in neighboring cardiomyocytes. Finally, we demonstrate that this methodology can be extended to the interrogation of signaling in neuron−glia interactions using nanowire−containing oligodendrocytes.