Creativity@home-Novel Tools for Single Cell Manipulation

细胞是生命中最小的单位之一，由更小的成分组成，包括脂质和蛋白质，它们结合在一起，执行对细胞生命至关重要的功能。类脂形成了帮助分隔它们的膜的主干，而蛋白质是细胞中的工人分子，在整个过程中制造、建造和移动东西。有趣的是，这些分子并不是单独工作的，相反，它们经常聚集在一起执行更高阶的功能，它们在整个细胞中的水平随着时间和空间的变化而变化。它们作为时间的函数对刺激做出反应，一些是细胞外部的，一些是细胞内部的。不幸的是，就我们测量这些系统内部工作的能力而言，目前的技术水平仍然不可能测量单个细胞中的蛋白质水平，也不可能准确地将材料输送到单个细胞或从单个细胞中移除材料(无论是表面还是亚细胞位置)。该提案提出了一系列可行性研究，以试验一系列有能力解决这些技术瓶颈的新技术，从而解锁细胞的内部工作。

Cells which are amongst the smallest units of life are made up of smaller components including lipids and proteins that combine together to perform functions that are vital to the life of the cell. Lipids form the backbone of membranes that help to compartmentalize them whereas proteins are the worker molecules in cells, making, building and moving things throughout. Interestingly, these molecules do not work in isolation, instead they often come together to perform higher order functions and their levels throughout a cell vary both as a function of time and space. They fluctuate as a function of time in response to stimuli, some external and some internal to the cell. Unfortunately, the state of the art in terms of our ability to measure the inner workings of these systems is such that it is still not possible to measure the protein levels in or accurately deliver or remove material to or from a single cell (either to the surface of to a sub-cellular location). This proposal puts forwards a series of feasibility studies to trial a series of new technologies that have the ability to address these technological bottlenecks thereby unlocking the inner workings of cells.