Speaker
Description
Cellular behaviour modulation has traditionally been studied through genetic and epigenetic manipulation. However, non-genetic approaches to control behaviour remain mostly underexplored. We demonstrate here, for the first time, the use of membrane-incorporated molecular photo switches, in the form of azobenzene-cholesterol derivatives, to optically control cellular behavioural processes in the immotile algal dinoflagellate Pyrocystis fusiformis (P. fusiformis). P. fusiformis produces bioluminescence when activated by shear stress imposed on the outer plasma membrane. This unique property, combined with the ease of culturing, makes P. fusiformis the ideal model cellular organism for our study. Previously, azobenzene derivatives (photo switches), which change molecular conformation (isomerization) upon irradiation at specific absorption wavelengths, have been shown to localize to the plasma membranes of human red blood cells and alter their membrane morphology. Analogously, we aim to use optical stimulation to induce isomerization of membrane-integrated photo switches to induce bioluminescence in P. fusiformis by generating optically derived mechanical shear stress on the outer plasma membrane. This discovery would constitute a novel approach to altering cellular behaviour without genetic or epigenetic manipulation. We will show first stages in demonstrating proof of concept of this novel optical bio-modulation method including demonstration of localization of photo switches to the membranes of P. fusiformis cells and light directed motion of an immotile P. fusiformis cell upon irradiation at the isomerization wavelength of the localized photo switch at λ = 365 nm. This phenomenon constitutes a new method for optical steering of biological cells and has broad applicability in pharmaceutics and biomodulation.
| Keyword-1 | Photobiomodulation |
|---|---|
| Keyword-2 | Bioluminescence |
| Keyword-3 | Azobenzne |