One goal of PSPG is to make science more accessible to the general public. Our first science spotlight features work by Matt Churgin and the Fang-Yen lab.
Scientists who want to understand how specific genes
function in specific cells need the ability to manipulate gene expression, but
there are few tools that allow us to ask questions at the single cell level. At
best these tools can target populations of cells, but that’s not good enough
for the developmental biologist who wants to know the fate of a particular cell
within an embryo. A recent study out of Penn (Churgin et al. Genes Genomes Genetics, 2013) addresses these limitations by
improving on a method that relies on heat-inducible gene expression and a
continuous wave laser. This type of laser constantly bombards the specimen with
heat and tends to warm up not just the target cell but the cells around it,
causing the gene of interest to be expressed in the wrong place. To address
this problem the authors used a pulsed infrared laser that heats up only the
target cell, setting the stage for single cell experiments. The authors then
demonstrated that they could use this to temporarily induce the expression of
green fluorescent protein (GFP) in one specific cell. They then took it a step
further and showed that they could induce permanent expression of GFP that
could be passed down to daughter cells. This new technique will allow scientists
to have greater spatial (which cell?) and temporal (when and how long?) control
over gene expression. This will help answer questions such as how the fate of
cells is genetically controlled during development.
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