Engineering cells to broadcast their behavior will help scientists study their inner workings

are waves Ubiquitous in nature and technology. Whether it’s the rise and fall of ocean waves or the swinging of a clock’s pendulum, the predictable rhythms of waves create a signal that’s easy to track and distinguish from other types of signals.

Electronic devices use radio waves to send and receive data, such as your laptop and Wi-Fi router or cell phone and cell tower. Similarly, scientists can use different types of waves to transmit different types of data: signals from invisible processes and the dynamics underlying how cells make decisions.

I am a Synthetic biologistAnd N Research Group developed a technology that Sends a wave of encoded proteins It travels through the human cell to provide a window into hidden processes that energize cells when they are healthy and harm cells when they are dysfunctional.

Waves are a powerful engineering tool

The oscillatory behavior of waves is one reason why they are powerful forms in engineering.

For example, controlled and predictable changes in waveforms can be used to encode data such as voice or video information. In the case Radio, every station A unique electromagnetic wave is assigned that oscillates at its own frequency. These are the numbers you see on the radio dial.

Scientists can extend this strategy to living cells. Used by my team Waves of proteins To turn a cell into a microscopic radio station, it broadcasts data about its activity to study its behavior in real time.

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Bacterial proteins MinD (cyan) and MinE (magenta) can self-organize into spiral shapes.

Converting cells into radio stations

To read the inside of cells requires a type of wave that can specifically connect and interact with a cell’s machinery and components.

While electronic devices are built from wires and transistors, cells are made up of and controlled by a variety of chemical building blocks. are called proteins. Proteins perform a variety of functions within the cell, from extracting energy from sugars to deciding whether the cell should grow.

Protein waves are generally rare in nature, but some bacteria naturally produce waves of two proteins MinD and MinE — commonly referred to together as MinDE — help separate them. My team discovered that putting MinDE into human cells causes the proteins to rearrange themselves into an amazing array. Waves and patterns.

On its own, MinDE protein waves do not interact with other proteins in human cells. However, we found that MinDE may Designed immediately Reacting to the activity of specific human proteins responsible for making decisions such as whether to grow, send signals to neighboring cells, move around and divide.

The protein dynamics that drive these cellular functions are typically difficult to detect and study in living cells because the activity of proteins is usually invisible even to high-power microscopes. Disruption of these protein forms is in The basis of many Cancers and developmental disabilities.

Placing MinDE in human cells produces visual patterns that indicate changes in protein activity in the cell.

We modeled connections between MinDE protein waves and the activity of proteins responsible for key cellular processes. Now, the activity of these proteins induces changes in the frequency or amplitude of the protein wave, similar to AM/FM radio. Using microscopes, we can detect and record the unique signals emitted by individual cells and decode them to reconstruct the dynamics of these cellular processes.

We’ve only just 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, their potential is vast.

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