Fluorescent proteins tend to be toxic, so their clinical applications are sometimes limited and suspect. Researchers from Purdue University and the Korean National Institute of Agricultural Research engineered a new material, made of silk and some genetic engineering, that fluoresces well under green light without causing too much toxicity.
The technology works thanks to a protein, which glows in the far-red spectrum, whose genetic code was transferred to silkworms that then produced the silk.
The researchers have already developed smart bandages that kill bacteria when illuminated by green light. They put E. coli on the bandages and put a green light over them. After an hour, nearly half of the bacteria was dead.
This is still an early study, and improvements to the silk itself and its applications should lead to interesting new tools for medicine.
Open access study in journal Advanced Science: Green‐Light‐Activated Photoreaction via Genetic Hybridization of Far‐Red Fluorescent Protein and Silk…
Via: Purdue…