The Glade 4.0 :: View topic - I just want some jelly fish with some frickin' laser beams..

So many things wrong with that article.

For one, it's not a cell that's a laser. It's a cell that's being used as basically a living LED inside a series of mirrors/lenses that is used to create a laser. Basically, it's not using a cell to create a LASER, but sticking a cell INSIDE a laser to act as the light source... When it's activated by another, higher energy laser.

As such, it has no future applications that I can see inside the body, as you would actually need to surgically implant the lenses around the cell you want to study.

Adding recombinant GFP to human cells, on the other hand, is something that's been around for at least the last 15 years- it's great technology, and it lets you do a lot with imaging cells. It's one of the techniques I use for determining the effectiveness of the drugs I design, and it has a lot of potential in easy sensing of certain cell states...

But using it as an activatable internal laser to treat diseases? I highly doubt it.

For one thing (as I mentioned earlier) it isn't a laser without the optics! They haven't created a "living laser"... Heck, they'd be better off using any of the luminescent proteins (firefly luciferase, etc) instead- then they wouldn't need the high energy pulse to feed the fluorescence.

GFP (or any other fluorophore) is always an energy loss- it takes in high energy light, and then emits much lower energy light in a non-direction specific manner, losing both energy and coherence.

I also love how the article cuts out the second part of Bern's discussion on the topic:

Michael Berns wrote:

But he says that the technique might more feasibly be used to study individual cells than for medical applications. He points out that external light is needed to stimulate the laser action, which would be difficult in the body, potentially limiting the technique to thin-tissue systems or cells in culture or suspension.

Author:	Serienya [ Mon Jun 13, 2011 10:28 am ]
Post subject:	I just want some jelly fish with some frickin' laser beams..
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/06/ ... uman-cell/ Short version: weak laser made by combining a human cell and jelly fish light-emitting proteins. And my inner geek goes 'cool!'

Author:	NephyrS [ Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:07 am ]
Post subject:
So many things wrong with that article. For one, it's not a cell that's a laser. It's a cell that's being used as basically a living LED inside a series of mirrors/lenses that is used to create a laser. Basically, it's not using a cell to create a LASER, but sticking a cell INSIDE a laser to act as the light source... When it's activated by another, higher energy laser. As such, it has no future applications that I can see inside the body, as you would actually need to surgically implant the lenses around the cell you want to study. Adding recombinant GFP to human cells, on the other hand, is something that's been around for at least the last 15 years- it's great technology, and it lets you do a lot with imaging cells. It's one of the techniques I use for determining the effectiveness of the drugs I design, and it has a lot of potential in easy sensing of certain cell states... But using it as an activatable internal laser to treat diseases? I highly doubt it. For one thing (as I mentioned earlier) it isn't a laser without the optics! They haven't created a "living laser"... Heck, they'd be better off using any of the luminescent proteins (firefly luciferase, etc) instead- then they wouldn't need the high energy pulse to feed the fluorescence. GFP (or any other fluorophore) is always an energy loss- it takes in high energy light, and then emits much lower energy light in a non-direction specific manner, losing both energy and coherence. I also love how the article cuts out the second part of Bern's discussion on the topic: Michael Berns wrote: But he says that the technique might more feasibly be used to study individual cells than for medical applications. He points out that external light is needed to stimulate the laser action, which would be difficult in the body, potentially limiting the technique to thin-tissue systems or cells in culture or suspension.

Author:	Corolinth [ Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:17 am ]
Post subject:
I just want to wrap the sun in a giant photon sail with a pinhole placed in it to serve as a death ray to destroy Alpha Centauri.

Author:	Serienya [ Mon Jun 13, 2011 1:30 pm ]
Post subject:
Oh, I understand the limitations of the reporting (and that it's overblown). I just find it neat because it's shiny and I'm a bio geek. Other articles had a better description of what was done and how, but that was the first link I saw for it. And I just wanted an excuse to use the subject line.

Author:	NephyrS [ Mon Jun 13, 2011 1:33 pm ]
Post subject:
So if you like shiny things, have you seen the eGFP recombinant pig families? They were able to splice eGFP into pigs, yielding green piglets. Not only that, but the eGFP gene sequence is an inheritable trait- 1/4 of the resulting offspring had it! There are also green fluorescent mice, rabbits, rats, and (I think) a dog. Green glowing animals! Also, check out Brainbow! A group of Harvard neuroscientists used a mix of different fluorescent proteins (different colors) to stain living brains... But the method they used allowed for almost every cell to end up a slightly different color, so you can see them all individually. Some fantastic pictures! You can also use fluorescent proteins to color living, working neurons in such a way that you can see every dendritic branch, and watch as they move/grow. It's really cool.

The Glade 4.0 https://gladerebooted.net/

I just want some jelly fish with some frickin' laser beams.. https://gladerebooted.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6485	Page 1 of 1

Author:	Serienya [ Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:43 pm ]
Post subject:
Awesome - will have to look into that. I'm too far removed from my genetics degree these days.

Author:	NephyrS [ Mon Jun 13, 2011 9:40 pm ]
Post subject:
I got to have lunch with Chalfie (one of the guys that got the Nobel for GFP) a few months back... Really nice guy, and lots of neat stories about everything thats been done with GFP since he started.

Author:	Micheal [ Tue Jun 14, 2011 1:36 am ]
Post subject:	Re:
NephyrS wrote: So many things wrong with that article. For one, it's not a cell that's a laser. It's a cell that's being used as basically a living LED inside a series of mirrors/lenses that is used to create a laser. Basically, it's not using a cell to create a LASER, but sticking a cell INSIDE a laser to act as the light source... When it's activated by another, higher energy laser. As such, it has no future applications that I can see inside the body, as you would actually need to surgically implant the lenses around the cell you want to study. Adding recombinant GFP to human cells, on the other hand, is something that's been around for at least the last 15 years- it's great technology, and it lets you do a lot with imaging cells. It's one of the techniques I use for determining the effectiveness of the drugs I design, and it has a lot of potential in easy sensing of certain cell states... But using it as an activatable internal laser to treat diseases? I highly doubt it. For one thing (as I mentioned earlier) it isn't a laser without the optics! They haven't created a "living laser"... Heck, they'd be better off using any of the luminescent proteins (firefly luciferase, etc) instead- then they wouldn't need the high energy pulse to feed the fluorescence. GFP (or any other fluorophore) is always an energy loss- it takes in high energy light, and then emits much lower energy light in a non-direction specific manner, losing both energy and coherence. I also love how the article cuts out the second part of Bern's discussion on the topic: Michael Berns wrote: But he says that the technique might more feasibly be used to study individual cells than for medical applications. He points out that external light is needed to stimulate the laser action, which would be difficult in the body, potentially limiting the technique to thin-tissue systems or cells in culture or suspension. Really Neph, its from Fox, why waste a good rant. They can't get the day right half the time.

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