A glowing liver Mouse liver containing infrared fluorescent protein (IFP) glows in false colour in this infrared image. The image data was also used to create a tilted, three-dimensional view on the right to show the liver from a different angle. (Scientific American 2009)
Roger Tsien from and colleagues from the University of California have refined a fluorescent protein that could potentially be used to switch on genes in animals. Fluorescent proteins, which absorb and release light, are used as markers in a cell to label or observe cell cycle. The existing green fluorescent protein can only be excited at short wavelengths of light and cannot go through tissue. The fluorescent protein that Tsien has developed can be seen in a live animal because it absorbs light at close to an infrared wavelength.
The real capability lies in the power of this protein to control gene expression. Tsien explains the use of this in an example with a mouse. If behaviour is what you were interested in, you could use the protein to switch on a particular gene which controls brain function by exciting the protein with infrared light. The proteins would change the absorbed light into energy that would be used to switch a gene on or off. Although this type of attempt to control gene expression is not underway, it will not be very long until it is.
Nogrady. B, May 2009, Deep in the Red: Using Infrared to Watch What Goes On in a Living Body, Scientific American.
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