Dit zal zeker gevolgen hebben voor het domein van de nutricultuur.
Remote-controlled protein factories
With this in mind, a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, USA, led by chemical engineer Daniel Anderson, has figured out how to make artificial cells which they can stuff with these basic molecular components. In doing so they have produced tiny protein factories that are not strictly living in themselves but are free from the general clutter – and the consequent unpredictability – of real organisms. The factories are so small that in theory a solution of such pseudo-cells can be injected into the body to act as on-the-spot generators of therapeutic proteins, such as toxic drugs or antibodies. And – this is the especially neat part – the researchers have worked out how to turn protein production on and off using ultraviolet light, so that it can be controlled to order.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/2012...tein-factories |
