The lack of adequate organelle quality control pathways can compromise a cells function and health.For example improper mitochondrial quality control has been implicated as a factor that contributes to Parkinsons disease.In this talk I will illustrate a general, robust, and highly accessible scheme to probe how cells deal with organelle dysfunction.Through the use of photosensitizers organelles of interest can be selectively impaired with spatiotemporal precision, allowing quantitative analysis of organelle quality control pathways.