Photonic devices based on fluorescent proteins

基于荧光蛋白的光子器件

• 批准号: 1101947
• 负责人: Seok (Andy) Yun
• 金额: $ 36万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts General Hospital
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-07-01 至 2014-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1101947&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Photonic; devices; based; fluorescent; proteins

Since Theodore Maiman demonstrated the first laser a half century ago, stimulated emission and lasing have made a tremendous impact on modern science and technology. Although lasers and the coherent light they emit are omnipresent today, lasing has remained a man-made phenomenon. Generation of laser light has so far relied on artificial or engineered optical gain materials, such as doped crystals, semiconductors, synthetic dyes, and purified gases; biological materials and living organisms have not been explored as gain materials for lasers. This project introduces fluorescent proteins as a new optical gain material. The proposed research will investigate the optical amplification characteristics of biologically produced, biocompatible and biodegradable fluorescent proteins that have high quantum yield at various wavelengths across the entire visible spectrum. The fluorescent proteins offer unique properties not shared by any existing gain materials. For example, they can be expressed as functional transgene in a wide variety of organism. Intellectual merit of this project is harnessing these properties of fluorescent proteins to demonstrate novel photonic device concepts, including protein lasers in solutions and in condensed-state forms, as well as biological lasers based on single cells expressing fluorescent proteins will be explored. Successful completion of the proposed research will improve our ability to control and optimize the stimulated emission properties of fluorescent proteins and demonstrate miniature lasers and amplifiers built on the biological platform. Furthermore, it is expected to provide insights into a range of novel protein-based devices and technologies for practical applications. For example, lasing within the tissues and inside the cells may offer new possibilities of nonlinear deep imaging and intracellular sensing for bioengineering and medical diagnosis. The ability to generate laser light in vivo may enable new approaches in light-controlled therapy and drug activation. Broader impacts of this project include the opportunity to educate and train graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the highly vibrant and multidisciplinary environment at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine. Undergraduate students enrolled in the Wellman-HST Summer Institute for Biomedical Optics and other summer internship programs will be invited to participate in this project. The researchers and students will learn how to work across boundaries between disciplines through creativity and inspiration. In the long run, stimulated emission from fluorescent proteins has the potential to improve human health by enabling innovative approaches to disease diagnosis and light-based treatments.

自从西奥多·迈曼（Theodore Maiman）在半个世纪前展示了第一个激光以来，刺激的发射和激光对现代科学和技术产生了巨大影响。尽管今天发出的激光和连贯的光无处不在，但激光仍然是人为的现象。到目前为止，激光的产生依赖于人工或工程的光学增益材料，例如掺杂的晶体，半导体，合成染料和纯化的气体；生物材料和生物体尚未被探索为激光器的增益材料。该项目将荧光蛋白作为一种新的光学增益材料引入。拟议的研究将研究生物产生，生物相容性和可生物降解的荧光蛋白的光学扩增特性，这些荧光蛋白在整个可见光谱中具有高量子产率。荧光蛋白提供的独特特性并未由任何现有增益材料共享。例如，它们可以在各种生物体中表示为功能转基因。该项目的智力优点是利用荧光蛋白的这些特性来展示新型的光子装置概念，包括溶液中和凝结状态形式的蛋白激光器，以及基于表达荧光蛋白的单个细胞的生物激光器。拟议研究的成功完成将提高我们控制和优化荧光蛋白的刺激排放特性的能力，并展示在生物平台上构建的微型激光器和放大器。此外，预计将为实用应用提供一系列新型的基于蛋白质的设备和技术的见解。例如，在组织内部和细胞内部的激光可能会提供非线性深度成像和细胞内感测的新可能性，以进行生物工程和医学诊断。在体内产生激光光的能力可以实现光照疗法和药物激活的新方法。该项目的更广泛影响包括在Wellman摄影医学中心在高度充满活力和多学科环境中教育和培训研究生和博士后研究员的机会。将邀请参加Wellman-HST生物医学光学研究所和其他暑期实习计划的本科生参加该项目。研究人员和学生将通过创造力和灵感来学习如何在学科之间进行界限。从长远来看，荧光蛋白的刺激排放有可能通过实现疾病诊断和基于轻治疗的创新方法来改善人类健康。