'Talking'
bacteria to aid tissue engineering:-
Los Angeles | April
29, 2005 9:41:01 AM IST
Los Angeles,
April 29 : Researchers have successfully
programmed bacteria to communicate with each other
-- a development they hope will have applications
in the body's tissue and organ
repair.
Scientists at the US-based
Princeton University have been able to coax
bacteria to produce colour-coded patterns that
help send massages to each other making living
cells function like "tiny computers", reports
Xinhua.
"We are really moving beyond the
ability to programme individual cells to
programming a large collection, millions or
billions of cells, to do interesting things," said
study leader Ron Weiss.
E. coli, a bacteria
in the human intestine, was seen to emit red or
green fluorescent light in response to a signal
emitted from another set of E. coli.
Cells
glowed green when they sensed a higher
concentration of the signal chemical and red on
sensing a lower concentration. In another case,
the bacteria were seen to form a bulls-eye pattern
- a green circle inside a red surrounding the
sender cells.
According to scientists, the
creation of patterns, such as the bull's-eye
effect, is a key step that would help the cells
secrete required material.
Programmed cells
also could in the future be used to control the
repair or construction of tissues within the body,
guide stem cells to the locations where they are
needed and even build physical devices such as
antennas or transmitters in places hard for humans
to reach.
According to researchers, the
construction and study of such "synthetic
multi-cellular systems" could improve
understanding of naturally occurring developmental
processes and may foster applications in tissue
engineering, biomaterial fabrication and
bio-sensing.
(IANS)
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