3 ms·

A DNA-based voltmeter for organelles

59 points by ArtWomb 8y ago

deytempo 8y ago
It’s truly incredible how elaborate a cell is
vanderZwan 8y ago
When it comes to "things that make me feel like I'm living in a sci-fi future", things like drones and the internet doesn't hold a candle to the kind of stuff that is done in modern biological research, especially "nanotech" stuff like this. It's mind-boggling.
riskable 8y ago
I don't usually get very excited about low-level microbiology stuff (actually, just kidding, haha) but this has enormous potential! If this works as well as it seems like it should then whole hosts of (technical) biology (leading to medical) problems will cease to be "big problems". Example: Say you've developed a new drug that--in hypothesis (thanks to millions of combinatorial simulations)--could cure a certain disease but in simple human cell testing the drug has turned out to be toxic... It kills the cells. If only there were a way to figure out why it were toxic you might be able to modify the structure of your custom molecule so as to work around the problem (rather than having to preform real world testing on potentially millions of different variations of your drug). With a process like this you could take that research to the next level by figuring out say, that the reason your drug is toxic is because it disrupts tRNA encoding inside of your targeted cell's rhibosomes (just picking a random example organelle and it's function). You know this because--after administering your drug--the "DNA voltmeter" dropped to near zero in the rhibosomal membrane it was attached to. "Oh! We probably just need to wrap the molecule in <insert common pharmacuetical industry jargon> or deliver it via <insert bevy of complicated biological mechanisms>!"
dnautics 8y ago
Reading the article carefully (it's also VERY scant on experimental details) - you have to take a dye and conjugate it to the DNA, so it's not like the cell is producing theses voltmeters endogenously.
daemonk 8y ago
Here is a very general description of the system. The DNA probe has: - conjugated voltage sensitive dye - a conjugated reference dye - a targeting motif The targeting motif allows it to go into a specific organelle. The ratio of voltage sensitive signal to reference dye signal is used as a read-out. They calibrated and confirmed the probe by inducing artificial membrane potential changes and seeing if the read-out signal correlates. It's a cool system.

59 points by ArtWomb 8y ago

It’s truly incredible how elaborate a cell is

When it comes to "things that make me feel like I'm living in a sci-fi future", things like drones and the internet doesn't hold a candle to the kind of stuff that is done in modern biological research, especially "nanotech" stuff like this. It's mind-boggling.

riskable 8y ago

I don't usually get very excited about low-level microbiology stuff (actually, just kidding, haha) but this has enormous potential! If this works as well as it seems like it should then whole hosts of (technical) biology (leading to medical) problems will cease to be "big problems". Example: Say you've developed a new drug that--in hypothesis (thanks to millions of combinatorial simulations)--could cure a certain disease but in simple human cell testing the drug has turned out to be toxic... It kills the cells. If only there were a way to figure out why it were toxic you might be able to modify the structure of your custom molecule so as to work around the problem (rather than having to preform real world testing on potentially millions of different variations of your drug). With a process like this you could take that research to the next level by figuring out say, that the reason your drug is toxic is because it disrupts tRNA encoding inside of your targeted cell's rhibosomes (just picking a random example organelle and it's function). You know this because--after administering your drug--the "DNA voltmeter" dropped to near zero in the rhibosomal membrane it was attached to. "Oh! We probably just need to wrap the molecule in <insert common pharmacuetical industry jargon> or deliver it via <insert bevy of complicated biological mechanisms>!"

dnautics 8y ago

Reading the article carefully (it's also VERY scant on experimental details) - you have to take a dye and conjugate it to the DNA, so it's not like the cell is producing theses voltmeters endogenously.

daemonk 8y ago

Here is a very general description of the system. The DNA probe has: - conjugated voltage sensitive dye - a conjugated reference dye - a targeting motif The targeting motif allows it to go into a specific organelle. The ratio of voltage sensitive signal to reference dye signal is used as a read-out. They calibrated and confirmed the probe by inducing artificial membrane potential changes and seeing if the read-out signal correlates. It's a cool system.