Autofluorescence of flavin molecules in HeLa cell (IMAGE)

University of Tokyo

Autofluorescence of flavin molecules in HeLa cell

Caption

Researchers at the University of Tokyo detected changes in cells' autofluorescence in response to magnetic fields, a crucial step in understanding how animals from birds to butterflies navigate using Earth's geomagnetic field. A short burst of blue light shines on a specific area (blue circle) of a single HeLa (human cervical cancer) cell and then the light that the cell emits back is measured (center). The cellular autofluorescence occurs only in the area that was irradiated with blue light (center, right).

Credit

Photo by Ikeya and Woodward, CC BY, originally published in PNAS DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2018043118

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