WE CAN now spy on the very molecules of life with unprecedented precision. By tagging proteins with a burst of light, researchers have found they can track their hectic movements.
“It isn’t often appreciated how dynamic proteins are or how important that is,” says Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, who developed the technique with George Patterson at the National Institutes of Health near Washington DC. Far from being mere bags of fluid, our cells have complex structures and internal highways. Many proteins move between compartments, interact with other proteins or even leave the cell to rush elsewhere in the body.
The usual way…
