Science:
A laser built into a single cell may one day be used for
light-based therapeutics, writes Jon Cartwright for
Science. Physicists Malte Gather and Seok-Hyun Yun of
Harvard Medical School used cells derived from a human kidney
and added the DNA that codes for green fluorescent protein
(GFP), then placed some of the cells producing GFP between two
mirrors a single cell's width apart. To lase, the GFP in the
cells needed to be pumped with another laser, which sends
pulses of blue light at about 1 nanojoule. The light bounced
back and forth,
amplifying
the diffuse light from the GFP into a coherent green beam.
Gather and Yun are interested in the therapeutic applications
of their device. They also speculate that it might eventually
help the backbone of optical communications shift to
biotechnology.
