Bio-Laser Created: A New Development in Science

[sanman]

Researchers have managed to create a 'living laser' or 'bio-laser'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13725719

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-green-fluorescent-protein-expressing-cell-basis.html

Pretty interesting development. Can I presume there are no natural examples of 'living lasers' in the biological world? I wonder then how nature or Darwinism would make use of lasers, if they were introduced to the biological world and allowed to evolve over time.

 

[gf11221]

Maybe for a medication uses for eye disorders, nice topic by the way!

Also i really love the form of the cell!

 

[Ryan_m_b]

It's interesting news but it's not really the cells that produce the laser. Green fluorescent protein is a well developed tool in cell biology. The protein has a chromophore molecule that under a certain wavelength of light will emit a different wavelength, the protein has been modified to produce a whole http://philosophicallydisturbed.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/fpbeachtsien.jpg as well.

What the researchers have done here is sandwich the cells between sheets of glass to focus the emissions into laser light. I'm not really sure what the applications are other than better microscopy but it's pretty cool work.

 

[sanman]

Well, couldn't some biological analogues to the twin reflective mirrors also similarly be engineered? Maybe at some point, you could have an all-biological system, perhaps fully contained within a single-celled organism.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Well I'm not an expert in laser optics but I'm pretty sure that there's a set distance that lenses have to be placed for it to work. This distance is likely bigger than that of a single celled organism.

"Engineering" an organism to grow reflective mirrors and lenses is an insanely difficult (and currently impossible) task. Bearing in mind that the current level of sophistication in genetics allows us only to cut genes out and/or stick new genes in. Genes create proteins so with genetic modification we can place a gene for a specific protein perhaps near or with a desirable promotor into an organism's genome. There are no lifeforms on Earth that can synthesise glass organs and if there was that process is going to be the result of interactions between thousands of different genes and metabolic pathways. Sorry to say that we're going to have to wait for genetics, bioengineering and synthetic biology to get far, far more sophisticated before we start seeing pets with laser eyes..

 

[nobahar]

What's the difference between a fluorophore and a chromophore?

These are the questions that keep me up at night...

 

[Ryan_m_b]

What's the difference between a fluorophore and a chromophore?

These are the questions that keep me up at night...

I believe it is the same difference between fluorescence and luminescence. A chromophore absorbs certain frequencies of light and reflects others thus giving the molecule it's colour. For example a red chromophore will absorb blue, green, yellow etc and reflect red.

A fluorophore is fluorescent. Unlike luminescence fluorescent objects absorb light of one wavelength and emit light at another wavelength.

A good analogy would be if I was in a dark room with a torch, if I shine the torch on the red wall the wall bounced back red light at me. If I shine it on the fluorescent stickers on the ceiling they will absorb my light and emit different light back at me. Make sense?

 

[nobahar]

Oh, thanks!

I shall sleep well.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

So this is basically a dye laser (first invented in the 1960s) that uses GFP as a gain medium. The result seems neither surprising nor particularly useful.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

So this is basically a dye laser (first invented in the 1960s) that uses GFP as a gain medium. The result seems neither surprising nor particularly useful.

I believe the use will come from better resolution and tracking of the protein (which can be attached to other proteins and used to observe cell reactions). I don't think the intent was to enhance laser science but microscopy.

 

[sp.prithivi]

can this laser be used to machine metals? I mean can this be used for laser machining process?

 

[rhody]

From the second link the OP provided:

"While the individual laser pulses last for only a few nanoseconds, they are bright enough to be readily detected and appear to carry very useful information that may give us new ways to analyze the properties of large numbers of cells almost instantaneously," says Yun, who is an associate professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School. "And the ability to generate laser light from a biocompatible source placed inside a patient could be useful for photodynamic therapies, in which drugs are activated by the application of light, or novel forms of imaging."

Ryan, Would you expand on what they mean by photodynamic therapies, in semi-layman's terms, don't dumb it down too much, but make it easily understandable. How would such a detector be constructed ?

Rhody...

 

[Ryan_m_b]

From the second link the OP provided:

Ryan, Would you expand on what they mean by photodynamic therapies, in semi-layman's terms, don't dumb it down too much, but make it easily understandable. How would such a detector be constructed ?

Rhody...

PDT is a technique for increased drug delivery and targeting. Lot's of drugs have problems of toxicity and side effects i.e. they are brilliant at treating whatever it is they are meant for but are hampered by damaging other tissues. What PDT does is bind the drug to other chemicals that render it inert, these bonds are engineered to be broken by certain frequencies of light. Therefore all a physician needs to do is administer the drug, wait for a few hours and then shine a laser on the spot that needs treatment. This is particularly good for skin cancer.

I'm not sure what they mean in this article as to how this development could help, I'll take a look over it later and see how they think it could apply.

 

[Pythagorean]

hrm, that sounds a lot like "uncaging". I read a paper that used the technique for analyzing Ca binding domains at the synapse.