Human Cells Transformed into Tiny Lasers

Living biological cells can now be turned into tiny lasers that emit light that can be used to track the spread of diseases, such as cancer.

Researchers  at Harvard Medical School uncovered three ways to turn human cells into functional lasers.

First, they injected cells with tiny oil droplets to form a cavity that could be filled with fluorescent dye. When an external pulse of light was directed at the droplet, the cells emitted light in a narrow beam.

Secondly, the team used polystyrene beads, which were ingested by a type of white blood cell, to carry out functions similar to the oil droplets.

In a third technique, the scientists exploited fatty droplets that existed within living cells to emit a beam of light.

The first two methods were tested on humans, and the third method was tested using pig cells. The new method could also make is much easier to distinguish between different cells. Today, fluorescent dyes are commonly used to tag living cells and emit light, but they produce a broad range of wavelengths that can make it challenging to differentiate one tagged cell from another.

The new method of turning cells into tiny lasers makes it much easier to distinguish between tagged cells since lasers have a more narrow range of wavelengths.In the future, scientists could potentially give every cell in the human body its own unique laser signature. This could help to track the spread of tumor cells, for example, or monitor how cells respond to inflammation.

-Dixy