Cephalopod-inspired optical engineering of human cells.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32488070.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-16151-6 and PMC identifier 7266819.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Although many animals have evolved intrinsic transparency for the purpose of concealment, the development of dynamic, that is, controllable and reversible, transparency for living human cells and tissues has remained elusive to date. Here, by drawing inspiration from the structures and functionalities of adaptive cephalopod skin cells, we design and engineer human cells that contain reconfigurable protein-based photonic architectures and, as a result, possess tunable transparency-changing and light-scattering capabilities. Our findings may lead to the development of unique biophotonic tools for applications in materials science and bioengineering and may also facilitate an improved understanding of a wide range of biological systems.
Medical subject headings
- Cell Engineering
- Cephalopoda
- Optics and Photonics