Photonic devices based on fluorescent proteins

自从西奥多.梅曼在世纪前演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。虽然激光器和它们发出的相干光今天无处不在，但激光仍然是一种人造现象。迄今为止，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、合成染料和纯化气体;生物材料和活生物体尚未被探索作为激光器的增益材料。本项目引入荧光蛋白作为一种新的光学增益材料。拟议的研究将调查生物产生的、生物相容的和可生物降解的荧光蛋白的光放大特性，这些荧光蛋白在整个可见光谱的各种波长下具有高量子产率。荧光蛋白提供了任何现有增益材料所不具有的独特性质。例如，它们可以在多种生物体中表达为功能性转基因。该项目的智力价值是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。成功完成拟议的研究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型蛋白质基设备和技术的见解。例如，组织内和细胞内的激光可以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活化的新方法成为可能。该项目的更广泛的影响包括在韦尔曼光医学中心高度活跃和多学科的环境中教育和培训研究生和博士后研究员的机会。就读于威尔曼-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将被邀请参加该项目。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，荧光蛋白的受激发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。

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.