The waves are omnipresent in nature and technology. Whether it’s the rise and fall of ocean tides or the swing of a clock’s pendulum, the predictable rhythms of waves create a signal that is easy to track and distinguish from other types of signals.
Electronic devices use radio waves to send and receive data, like your laptop and Wi-Fi router or cell phone and cell tower. Similarly, scientists can use a different type of wave to transmit a different type of data: signals from the invisible processes and dynamics underlying how cells make decisions.
I am one synthetic biologistit’s mine search group developed a technology that sends out a wave of engineered proteins traveling through a human cell to provide a window into the hidden activities that fuel cells when they are healthy and harm cells when they go out of control.
Waves are a powerful engineering tool
The oscillating behavior of waves is one reason they are powerful patterns in engineering.
For example, controlled and predictable changes in wave oscillations can be used to encode data, such as voice or video information. In case of radio, every station a unique electromagnetic wave that oscillates at its own frequency is attributed. These are the numbers you see on the radio dial.
Scientists can extend this strategy to living cells. My team used protein waves transform a cell into a microscopic radio station, transmitting data about its activity in real time to study its behavior.
Turning cells into radio stations
Studying the inside of cells requires a type of wave that can connect and interact specifically with a cell’s machinery and components.
While electronic devices are built from wires and transistors, cells are constructed and controlled by a diverse collection of chemical building blocks. called proteins. Proteins perform a range of functions within the cell, from extracting energy from sugar to deciding whether the cell should grow.
Protein waves are generally rare in nature, but some bacteria naturally generate waves of two proteins called MinD and MinE – usually referred to together as MinDE – to help them divide. My team discovered that putting MinDE into human cells causes proteins to rearrange themselves into an impressive array of waves and patterns.
By themselves, MinDE protein waves do not interact with other proteins in human cells. However, we found that MinDE could be easily designed react to the activity of specific human proteins responsible for making decisions about growing, sending signals to neighboring cells, moving and dividing.
The protein dynamics that drive these cellular functions are typically difficult to detect and study in living cells because protein activity is generally invisible even to high-powered microscopes. The disruption of these protein patterns it’s in core of many cancers and developmental disorders.
We engineer connections between MinDE protein waves and the activity of proteins responsible for key cellular processes. Now, the activity of these proteins triggers changes in the frequency or amplitude of the protein wave, just like an AM/FM radio. Using microscopes, we can detect and record the unique signals that individual cells are transmitting and then decode them to recover the dynamics of these cellular processes.
We’ve only begun to scratch the surface of how scientists can use protein waves to study cells. If the history of waves in technology is any indicator, its potential is vast.
This article was republished from The conversationan independent, nonprofit news organization that brings you facts and analysis to help you understand our complex world.
It was written by: Scott Coyle, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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Scott Coyle receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation
