MSU expert: Using light to listen to biology
East Lanceing, Mich. , Allad Haral Used to throw light on the mysteries of the natural world.
Ultrafast spectroscopy work in state-of-the-art-Application of small laser pulses to analyze the dynamics of molecules-Machigan State University Associate Professor The purpose is to explain how microscopic events affect large complex systems.
A promising Frontier Harel is working, the development of new methods of microscopy that will allow researchers to observe molecular and nuclear landscapes in motion rather than static imagination. Such work has earned Harel MSU 2023 year innovation awardAlso MSU’s first and first Grant from WM KECK Foundation.
Now in one New publication In the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Harel and his Spartan colleagues reported the “sound” of a virus and reports using light to study-a hearing success that elusive, is a real-time biology in a real-time biology Provides a glimpse.
Harel’s lab worked together Dohun pioneThe Department of Microbiology of MSU, genetics and immunology, or a professor in MGI, who lended their group expertise in providing the goal of the virus.
“Team work really matters in this challenging and exciting project, and it is attractive to use these small virus particles – they are actually ‘breathing’ under laser Illumination,” Yacking Zhang, A postdotoral researcher and authored first study in Harel Lab.
âI am confident that this technique can be widely used for millions of viruses and other biological samples and will get more invaluable information from them. The more we know them, the better we can prepare for the next epidemic, âJhang said.
Natural science college To learn more about this discovery, caught with Harel and a process that he calls biosonic spectroscopy.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Many people will not do the words “viruses,” light “and” listen “in a sentence. Can you talk a little about fundamental science behind this discovery?
Each type of system has a natural vibration frequency, whether it is a star or a biological unit like a virus. You can think of it as a sound such as materials, from which all atoms vibrate together such as balls connected by a complex network of springs.
The system of atoms and their interactions is that when I explode on a table, it seems different if I bang on a wall. Of course, the sound can be very complicated and may have significant information: If you hear a familiar voice throughout the room, you can immediately identify what it is coming from. Sound, therefore, is a powerful means of identity.
Researchers have been looking at the ultrasonic vibration of metal nanopathy for many years, but we wanted to ask questions, ‘Does the biological system produce a sound when experiencing some force?’
To start a sound, we use small pulses of light that produce coherent speeds in the system. We use a second pulse of light to check that speed in different moments in time. By combining all the snapshots together in time, we can produce a molecular film that captures the vibration speed of the object.
It was a kind of distant idea, and there was really no example for it, and we found that the virus has a unique sound, which opens a new way of thinking about biology.
Whether it is a virus, a protein, bacteria or a cell nucleus – each will have a unique signature that we can detect.
Why did “hear” for an biological system seem like an effective approach compared to other methods of analysis?
We were trying to deal with a fundamental problem in biology, which was also focused on our KECK Foundation Grant – to get the resolve of electron microscopy, but for living systems.
Electron microscopy, or EM, is very powerful in itself, but you are actually taking the snapshot of life, and you are doing it in an environment that is quite different from what you get in living organisms. The EM is performed in the vacuum, and with the cryo-EM, it is done at very low temperatures where life cannot be maintained. The goal of the KECK grant was to develop microscopy methods that can imagine and track biology in a warm and wet environment where living things operate.
We spent many years spent in developing more and more sensitive techniques that can measure acoustic vibrations, especially at single particle level. It was in collaboration with Pyeon Lab in MGI, which helped us get access to various viruses.
The big picture was also wondering how this acoustic approach could be used as a powerful imaging probe without the need for labeling. This is the process in which a marker is attached to a molecule, allowing researchers to track and study its behavior and interaction. Extremely useful and specific, labeling process can be slow and intensive.
One of our goals is to show that this new functioning can use the natural labeling of a virus or molecule – basically, the sound of its own content that distinguishes it from everything else in a system.
So, how did these virus look like? Do they ever change their tunes?
It turned out to be the vibration in the Gigahertz region. This is a very low frequency from the point of optical infection. For example, visible light is in hundreds of terhurts, so these are millions of times less energy that we usually think in terms of optical spectroscopy.
In this letter, we showed that we can track single virus and even hear a virus breakdown. As the virus starts to become open and weakened, its sounds begin to change, decrease – almost like a disabled balloon.
What does the future look like for these discoveries?
What we want to do next is how a virus is moving forward that we can actually track dynamically. If we want to see a virus going into a cell now, the process is very, very challenging and slow through electron microscopy or using complex fluorescence labeling.
For example, we have a grant with defense danger reduction agency that is interested in biological and chemical identity. Whatever they do to combat viral infections, it develops drugs, or antiviral.
Thinking this is: Can we use such technology to speed up that development process – because we can potentially see the life cycle of a virus from beginning to end and antiviral in disrupting that process Or can better understand the effects of drugs.
Bethani Magar and Connor by Yik
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