Scientists Use Light to Control Proteins

A team of researchers from Penn State and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has discovered a way to use light to control certain proteins that catalyze biochemical reactions. "This is one of the first examples of someone successfully controlling the activity of a protein using light," said Stephen Benkovic, Penn State Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry, holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Chemistry, and one of the team's leaders. "The technology one day could be expanded to have multiple uses, including the ability to turn off the activities of some disease-causing proteins in the cell," he said. The team's results will appear in the 17 October issue of the journal Science.

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