Cell squeezing enhances protein imaging
Tagging proteins with a fluorescent label such as green fluorescent protein (GFP) is currently the best way to track specific molecules inside a living cell. However, while this approach has yielded many significant discoveries, GFP and similar tags are so large that they may interfere with the labeled proteins’ natural functions. A new approach based on cell-squeezing technology developed at MIT allows researchers to deliver fluorescent tags that are much less bulky, making this kind of protein imaging easier and more efficient. In 2013, the MIT team demonstrated that squeezing cells makes it possible to deliver a variety of molecules, including proteins, DNA, carbon nanotubes, and quantum dots, into the cells without damaging them. Researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany, working with their MIT colleagues, have now employed this approach to deliver relatively tiny fluorescent tags that can be targeted to specific proteins. Using regular confocal microscopes or super resolution microscopes, scientists...