Genetic Clock Makers at UC San Diego Publish Their 'Timepiece' in Nature (1 of 2) (IMAGE)
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UC San Diego bioengineers including Scott Cookson (pictured) have created the first stable, fast and programmable genetic clock that reliably keeps time by the blinking of fluorescent proteins inside E. coli cells. The clock’s blink rate changes when the temperature, energy source or other environmental conditions change, a fact that could lead to new kinds of sensors that convey information about the environment through the blinking rate. One of the keys to this advance are the sophisticated microfluidic systems (pictured here) capable of controlling environmental conditions of their E. coli cells with great precision that have been developed in Jeff Hasty's bioengineering lab at UC San Diego.
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UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
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photo credit: UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
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