First Living Laser Created

Researchers have made use of human kidney cell to create the first living laser. Malte Gather and Seok Hyun Yun of the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, have described how a single cell genetically engineered to express green fluorescent protein (GFP) can be used to amplify the light particles called photons into nanosecond-long pulses of laser light.

"Since they were first developed some 50 years ago, lasers have used synthetic materials such as crystals, dyes and purified gases as optical gain media, within which photon pulses are amplified as they bounces back and forth between two mirrors," Yun said.

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"Ours is the first report of a successful biological laser based on a single, living cell," Yun added.

They developed a line of mammalian cells expressing GFP at the required levels. The cellular laser was assembled by placing a single GFP-expressing cell - with a diameter of from 15 to 20 millionths of a meter - in a microcavity consisting of two highly reflective mirrors spaced 20 millionths of a meter apart. Not only did the cell-based device produce pulses of laser light as in the GFP solution experiment, the researchers also found that the spherical shape of the cell itself acted as a lens, refocusing the light and inducing emission of laser light at lower energy levels than required for the solution-based device.

"While the individual laser pulses last for only a few nanoseconds, they are bright enough to be readily detected and appear to carry very useful information that may give us new ways to analyze the properties of large numbers of cells almost instantaneously," said Yun, who is an associate professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School.

Quiz on Kidney
The kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, each about the size of a fist, and are located just below the rib cage, one on each side of your spine.

Healthy kidneys filter about half a cup of blood every minute, removing wastes and extra water to make urine. The urine flows from the kidneys to the bladder through two thin tubes of muscle called ureters, one on each side of your bladder. The bladder stores urine. The kidneys, ureters, and bladder are partof the urinary tract.

Kidney Cells Can Help Assemble Biobatteries
Kidney cells, which are particularly good at transporting ions, may pave the way for a miniature biobattery.

kidneys remove wastes and extra fluid from your body. Kidneys also remove acid that is produced by the cells of your body and maintain a healthy balance of water, salts, and minerals-such as sodium, calcium, phosphorus and potassium-in your blood ().

Without this balance, nerves, muscles, and other tissues in the body may not work normally.

Kidneys also make hormones that help

Control your blood pressure
Make red blood cells
Keep your bones strong and healthy

"And the ability to generate laser light from a biocompatible source placed inside a patient could be useful for photodynamic therapies, in which drugs are activated by the application of light, or novel forms of imaging," added Yun.

The report will appear in the journal Nature Photonics.

Source-ANI

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