Using graphene, a group of researchers has come up with the first photographic images of individual proteins, which might eventually help in understanding how certain proteins malform, causing a wide range of diseases.
To take pictures of individual proteins (among them the red blood cell protein hemoglobin, the cow protein bovine serum albumin and cytochrome c, which allows electrons to carry proteins to various places within the human body), the scientists first coated (or "electrosprayed") them with a solution on a thin sheet of graphene.
Using a low-energy holography electron microscope, the researchers then captured an image with the help of electrons; when electrons rebound from the sheet and co-mingle with other electrons, the microscope records the interaction, and in turn, an image is formed in a process that does no damage to the individual proteins being photographed due to the low amounts of energy used in the method.
Why haven't photos of individual proteins ever been taken before? Simple: before this process, scientists attempted to capture individual proteins on camera by crystallizing them — a method that either destroyed these proteins or that was simply not applicable due to the fact that not all proteins actually have the capacity to crystallize.
"This [process] has led to the first tool ever for revealing structural details of native single proteins and protein complexes without destroying them," the team stated in its findings, which were published by ArXiv. "With the recent advances in electrospray ionization of large protein complexes, and in particular membrane proteins, even the structure of these biologically important but reluctant to readily crystalize entities will possibly become accessible in the near future."
Via: Popular Science
Photo: Phylogeny Figures | Flickr
