Trying to reduce that jumbled mess.

Because I have actually started to tell people about this blog, I felt I should probably begin writing about science. So, I decided to explain the picture in my header, captured by Dr. Tamily Weissman.

I am forcing my non-science friends read this as well so I wanted to clarify a concept in biology: Within the cells of all organisms are genes. Genes are made up of DNA. DNA is used as a blueprint to make these big molecules called proteins. Proteins are basically the bitches of the cell in that they perform almost every activity and function in the cell. If you understand this, you could have passed an exam in General Biology (be proud because several people don’t pass that exam).

This semester, being my last as an undergraduate by the way, I am taking a course called Functional Genomics and Proteomics. This class is taught by Dr. Fernando Noriega, a comparative physiologist who studies the synthesis of certain hormones that are involved in insect development. The class is designed for science majors and is supposed to expose the students to techniques scientists use to study genes and proteins. For most of the semester, we have been reading articles concerning topics ranging from immunity in mosquitoes to the metabolism of worms. These articles are laden with quite insipid graphs and Venn diagrams; I will take this time to note that although the figures in these article are traditionally thought of as boring, they do provide scientists with crucial, important information (no matter how excruciating it is to analyze them).

One week, however, we were assigned to read articles that utilized special techniques used in transgenics. When I read transgenics, I automatically think of mutants, which is essentially what the organisms derived from these procedures are. Scientists use transgenics to insert pieces of foreign DNA into another organism; these organisms are then considered to be genetically modified. With the new DNA, the organism can now make proteins that make the cell function in a way they have not been able to before. There’s much hullabaloo about the current application of transgenesis by agricultural companies to create super-crops (Monsanto you trouble maker) but that is a different post.

In a less controversial, and much prettier, form of transgenesis, a group of scientists at Harvard University used the technique to make mutants to help visualize the cells of the brains, also called neurons. To visualize neurons, scientists would traditionally only insert a piece of foreign DNA into the neuron’s DNA and this DNA would make only one protein that fluoresced (essentially glowed) as one color when exposed to a certain wavelength of light. The end result is an impressive, albeit jumbled, picture of neurons. This is because neurons are in such close proximity to one another and each neuron, being that one color, would just seemingly merge into one mass when visualized. It’s hard to figure out where one neuron starts and the other neuron begins; believe me I spent a summer counting fluorescent neurons.

I guess these guys at Harvard threw their hands up in the air when they got frustrated and decided to make life easier. And more striking. They made one piece of foreign DNA that has the ability to make 3 proteins that fluoresce in 3 different colors. They then stuck it in the neurons of a mouse. This piece of DNA has the ability to cut and paste itself into different forms so that more than 3 colors can be produced (have you ever mixed paint colors? Same deal). The end color result for each neuron is random and variable. The overall end result is an image of the brain that can take your breath away. They called it “Brainbow.”

Get it? Brainbow… Rainbow… It took me a while.

Here's the link to the article, if you are so inclined to read it and if you have access to Nature.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v450/n7166/full/nature06293.html

Song that was playing as I finished this post: "Great DJ" by The Ting Tings.
Just thought I should mention that.