Control of cell movement with light accomplished in living organisms

May 17, 2010

A team led by Denise Montell, PhD, of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, has controlled protein behavior in live fruit flies simply by shining a focused beam of light on the cells where they want the protein to be active.

A precise understanding of cellular growth and movement is the key to developing new treatments for cancer and other disorders caused by dysfunctional cell behavior.

The new technology, developed in the laboratory of Klaus Hahn, PhD, the Thurman Professor of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is an advance over previous light-directed methods of cellular control that used toxic wavelengths of light, disrupted the cell membrane or could switch proteins on but not off. Unlike some approaches, it requires no injection of cofactors or other unnatural materials into the animals being studied.

“We have now shown that this technique works in two different living organisms, providing proof of principle that light can be used to activate a key protein. In this case the protein controls cell movement, enabling us to move cells about in animals. This is particularly valuable in studies where cell movement is the focus of the research, including embryonic development, nerve regeneration and cancer metastasis. Now researchers can control where and when particular proteins are activated in animals, providing a heretofore inaccessible level of control,” said Hahn.

More info: University of North Carolina School of Medicine news

Also see: fMRI research on brain activity validated