Microtubule drugs have a wide range of applications in cell biology research as well as cancer therapy; however their application was so far limited to the treatment of entire cell populations and tissues. In a recent paper in Cell, Borowiak et al (2015) now describe a novel type of switchable microtubule drugs. The activity of their drugs, denoted as “photostatins”, can be switched on and off by violet and green light, respectively, which allows for the first time a precise spatial and temporal control of the microtubule cytoskeleton in single cells and tissues.