Well, not quite.
My microwave oven put out radio waves, and it seems to have an effect
on quite a bit of biological material.
:-)
Polar molecules rotate in radio waves, and water is one of the smallest
polar molecules.
MRI scanners are radio devices. A radio pulse makes hydrogen nuclei precess
in a strong magnetic field, and this precession is detected by radio receivers.
Suppose we made a strongly polar molecule that was fairly large in comparison
to other strongly polarized molecules in the body (a small peptide is large in
comparison to water, for example). We build it so that it changes its length in
response to something we want to measure (some gene expression or siRNA, or
maybe just oxygen levels). Now it will resonate at a different radio frequency
when the levels of that target change.
We already do this with light. An acid-base indicator is a large molecule that
resonates at a particular frequency (say that of blue light) in a basic solution,
but resonates at a different frequency (red light) in an acid. Making the molecule
larger shifts the frequency lower. Making the molecule polar, so that the entire
molecule spins instead of the electrons in it sloshing around, makes the frequency
drop way down into the radio range. For water, that is about 2.5 GHz. For other,
longer molecules, the frequency drops into even easier DIY frequencies.
no reason why we could not do similar spectroscopic analysis in-vivo with
tailored sensor molecules such as those Veera proposed.
There are lots of interesting papers dealing with radio frequency effects in
And, there is at least one paper that looks like this group might have a lot
of fun playing with, as it deals with E. coli, antibiotic effectiveness, and
easily available DIY friendly frequencies (10 MHz).
-----
Get a free science project every week! "http://scitoys.com/newsletter.html"On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 6:11 AM, Jelmer Cnossen <j.cnossen@gmail.com> wrote:
It largely depends on the wavelength whether this is useful. According to wikipedia, the smallest wavelength that still counts as "radio waves" is 1 millimeter, so you can only see stuff bigger than that. That rules out any subcellular structures. And at this size, you can just as well put the thing in MRI (Not really diybio though ;) )Next to that, the reason that radio waves are harmless is probably because no biological structures are organised enough on that wavelength scale to take up energy from it.
On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 7:40 AM, Veera <drveerammc@gmail.com> wrote:Recently i had some ideas about radioimaging gene expression. There
are many ways to study gene expression like using flourescent protien
tags. but all those requires sacrificing the animal for taking tissue
sections for immuno histochemistry. so i was searching some concepts
for visualizing gene expression within specific tissues inside the
body by some imaging techniques.Incidentally i came across bio
activated contrast agents.You can see that in this link <link>http://
www.nibib.nih.gov/HealthEdu/eAdvances/23Oct06<link>. But instead of
using contrast agent i'm just curious to know is there anything like
any protien or any biomolecule which is naturally radio opaque whose
gene can be sandwiched with the promoter of the gene of interest and
so we can image the the tissue and study the gene expression without
killing the animal.....
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DIYbio" group.
To post to this group, send email to diybio@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to diybio+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/diybio?hl=en.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DIYbio" group.
To post to this group, send email to diybio@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to diybio+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/diybio?hl=en.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DIYbio" group.
To post to this group, send email to diybio@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to diybio+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/diybio?hl=en.
0 comments:
Post a Comment