Colours of molecules
I see your true colors
When you look through the microscope, you will not see a colour spectacle like in an HD Hollywood blockbuster, but you will see a colour spectrum never seen before: thanks to RGB nanotechnology.
A team of scientists from Germany and America, led by Ralf Jungmann and Peng Yin, has developed a method with which up to 124 different colours can be generated and visualised at the molecular level.
While many screens use the principle of additive colour mixing (RGB – red, green, blue) to display visual content for the human eye, RGB nanotechnology transfers this concept to the molecular level. This makes complex biological structures visible and, above all, distinguishable.
RGB nano technology: metafluorophores as colour pixels
For the method to work at the molecular level, three fluorescent dyes are combined in fixed proportions. So-called metafluorophores are created – tiny colour units that glow according to their red, green and blue components. They are comparable to nanometre-sized colour pixels on a digital monitor.
DNA origami: a precise plug-in plate for vibrant colour codes
In order to produce stable and distinct metafluorophores, i.e. colour units with unique and unchanging colours, the researchers use DNA origami – a technique in which a long DNA strand folds itself into a stable, nanometre-sized structure with the help of short staple strands.
This DNA structure serves as a carrier material, a kind of plug-in plate on which the dyes are precisely placed. For each desired colour, the number of red, green or blue fluorescent molecules required is calculated. Additive colour mixing creates 124 metafluorophore versions – and each of these glows uniquely in a precisely defined colour.
You can find out more about the DNA origami in one of our other blog posts: https://carlroth.blog/mit-dna-origami-viren-in-die-falle-locken/
124 virtual colours – a breakthrough in molecular imaging
To date, researchers have used a few microscopy techniques to visualise molecules. In any case, the structures and molecules to be analysed must be labelled with dyes before microscopy, usually using the affinity (“binding ability”) of “stained” molecules. Even in high-resolution fluorescence microscopy, for the development of which the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in 2014, a maximum of three colours could previously be distinguished at the same time.
RGB nanotechnology now makes it possible to display up to 124 colours simultaneously using special microscopes. This means that, for the first time, many biomolecules can be analysed simultaneously in high resolution.
Why is the study of molecules so important?
Analysing molecules is essential for understanding the composition of biological structures and the mechanisms by which molecules and cells interact with each other. The more precise the molecular imaging, the more precise the insights that scientists can gain from it. This is the only way to decipher biochemical processes and subsequently find ways to change them, for example to understand the basis of diseases or develop new medical therapies.
An outlook: researchers are working on further improving the current state of RGB nanotechnology. The colour palette should become even broader and molecular relationships thus even clearer; in addition, the process should not only work on cell surfaces as before, but also inside the cell.
But RGB nanotechnology already represents a major advance in the context of molecular imaging – and will also make both everyday research under the microscope and scientific publications considerably more colourful.
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Sources:
https://www.biochem.mpg.de/20170622-woehrstein-jungmann
https://www.analytica-world.com/de/news/163819/unter-dem-mikroskop-wird-es-bunt.html
https://www.swr.de/wissen/1000-antworten/kann-man-molekuele-sehen-100.html
https://www.faszinationchemie.de/artikel/news/wie-kleine-molekuele-verborgene-krankheiten-anzeigen
