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    Self-assembling Proteins can Store Cellular ‘Memories’

    January 3, 2023, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Collage of images against a black background shows a calendar icon in top left. Top right shows 4 protein structures that look like worms, with different pink and blue sections. Bottom shows 1 worm-like protein structure in pink and blue.
    MIT engineers have devised a way to induce cells to inscribe the history of cellular events in a long protein structure that can be imaged using a light microscope.
    Credits:Courtesy of the researchers

    Using these engineered proteins, researchers can record histories that reveal when certain genes are activated, or how cells respond to a drug. As cells perform their everyday functions, they turn on a variety of genes and cellular pathways. MIT engineers have now coaxed cells to inscribe the history of these events in a long protein chain that can be imaged using a light microscope.

    Cells programmed to produce these chains continuously add building blocks that encode particular cellular events...

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