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Nature Methods Study: Using Light to Control Cell Clustering
New Study Advances Leading-Edge Field of
Optogenetics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and UC
Berkeley
A new study from engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute and the University of California, Berkeley, pairs
light and genetics to give researchers a powerful new tool for
manipulating cells. Results of the study, published in the
journal Nature Methods, show how blue light can be
used as a switch to prompt targeted proteins to accumulate into
large clusters.
This process of clustering, or oligomerization, is commonly
employed by nature to turn on or turn off specific signaling
pathways used in cells’ complex system of communications.
The new study details how this process can be replicated
with great precision, giving researchers new capabilities to
control and influence the process of oligomerization and cell
signaling.
Ravi Kane, the
P.K. Lashmet Professor in the Howard P. Isermann Department of
Chemical and Biological Engineering and faculty member of
the Center for Biotechnology and
Interdisciplinary Studies at Rensselaer, co-led the study
with Professor David
Schaffer of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the
UC Berkeley. This
study was made possible with support from the U.S. Department
of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy
Science.
“Our study shows a new use for using energy, in this case
light, as a tool to understand and control cellular function.
In this study, we demonstrated a new method for turning
specific cell signaling pathways on and off with spatial and
temporal precision, and use this to help better understand the
dynamics of the pathway. At the same time, our technique can be
used to control certain cell functions,” Kane and Schaffer
said.
Looking ahead, Kane said, it is possible the new process may
also one day be able to help optimize cellular function and
produce products of interest to energy production, such as
biofuels.
Results of the study, titled “Optogenetic protein clustering
and signaling activation in mammalian cells,” were published
online last week by Nature Methods and will appear in
a future print edition of the journal. The study may be viewed
online at: http://go.nature.com/jPqpHa
Light is an attractive tool to manipulate oligomerization,
Kane said, because of three properties: most biological cells
do not normally react or respond to light; light is easy to
make; and researchers can easily control light properties
including its color and intensity. In this new study, the
research team shined blue light onto cells containing a
bioengineered protein, and by doing so they were able to
activate cell signaling more effectively than they could using
the natural ligand Wnt3a. This protein clustering induced by
shining light was reversible—upon removing the blue light, the
cluster broke up within a few minutes. The researchers also
demonstrated how to use this modular technique to cluster
proteins that control cell shape.
“The new process can be applied to many different types of
proteins, signaling pathways, and cells,” said study co-author
Lukasz Bugaj, graduate student at UC Berkeley. The research
team plans to continue investigating new ways of controlling
different aspects of cells and cellular function with
light.
Along with Kane, Schaffer, and Bugaj, co-authors of the
paper are UC Berkeley graduate student Colin Mesuda and
research assistant Atri Choksi.
For more information on Kane and his research at Rensselaer,
visit:
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Published
February 11,
2013 |
Contact: Michael Mullaney
Phone: (518) 276-6161
E-mail: mullam@rpi.edu |
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