Chemical and Biological Switches

化学和生物开关

• 批准号: 155110-2012
• 负责人: Woolley, Andrew
• 金额: $ 6.27万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=522557
• 关键词: Chemical; Biological; Switches

Complex living systems, such as a developing multicellular organism, remain a barely charted frontier in our molecular understanding of the natural world. One cannot achieve a molecular understanding of such systems solely by studying their isolated components; to capture their essence one must devise methods to study them intact. Optical methods for manipulating molecular structure and function offer the potential to unravel some of the complexity of living systems. They can be used to target individual molecular species at specific sites with very precise timing inside living animals. The power of this approach has been recognized widely ("Method of the Year" in Nature Methods 2010) but there is still a long way to go to make optical control of molecules in vivo generally practical.

复杂的生活系统，例如发展中的多细胞生物，仍然是我们对自然世界的分子理解中几乎没有图表的前沿。一个人不能仅通过研究其孤立的组件来实现对此类系统的分子理解。为了捕捉他们的本质，必须设计方法来完整研究它们。操纵分子结构和功能的光学方法为揭示了生活系统的某些复杂性提供了潜力。它们可用于靶向具有非常精确的活物时机的特定位点的单个分子物种。这种方法的力量已被广泛认可（《自然方法》 2010年的“年度方法”），但是要在体内对分子进行光学控制通常可以实用，还有很长的路要走。