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.

自从半个世纪前西奥多·梅曼展示了第一台激光器以来，受激发射和激光对现代科学技术产生了巨大的影响。虽然激光及其发出的相干光如今无处不在，但激光仍然是一种人造现象。到目前为止，激光的产生依赖于人工或工程光学增益材料，如掺杂晶体、半导体、合成染料和净化气体；生物材料和活生物体尚未被探索作为激光增益材料。本项目介绍了荧光蛋白作为一种新型光学增益材料。该研究将研究在整个可见光谱的不同波长具有高量子产率的生物生产，生物相容性和可生物降解的荧光蛋白的光学放大特性。荧光蛋白具有任何现有增益材料所不具有的独特特性。例如，它们可以在多种生物体中作为功能性转基因表达。该项目的智力价值在于利用荧光蛋白的这些特性来展示新的光子器件概念，包括溶液和凝聚态形式的蛋白质激光器，以及基于表达荧光蛋白的单细胞的生物激光器。本研究的成功完成将提高我们控制和优化荧光蛋白受激发射特性的能力，并展示建立在生物平台上的微型激光器和放大器。此外，它有望为实际应用提供一系列新的基于蛋白质的设备和技术的见解。例如，组织内和细胞内的激光可能为生物工程和医学诊断提供非线性深度成像和细胞内传感的新可能性。在体内产生激光的能力可能使光控治疗和药物激活的新方法成为可能。该项目更广泛的影响包括有机会在威尔曼光电医学中心充满活力和多学科的环境中教育和培训研究生和博士后。本项目将邀请参加Wellman-HST生物医学光学暑期研究所和其他暑期实习项目的本科生参加。研究人员和学生将学习如何通过创造力和灵感跨越学科之间的界限。从长远来看，荧光蛋白的受激辐射有可能通过实现疾病诊断和基于光的治疗的创新方法来改善人类健康。