When postdoc Usama Al-Atar returned to retrieve his worms after an hour of incubating them with a photo-controlled molecular switch, he thought they were dead. Dozens of nematodes hung lifeless in solution, and Al-Atar could not see the rhythmic beating of their tiny pharyngeal bulbs (worm hearts) with his low magnification microscope. But when he exposed them to visible light—which was known to change the switch, a synthetic photoreactive molecule called bis(pyridinium) dithienylethene (DTE) 1, from its closed to its open form—he saw the worms start to stir.
“I saw one worm moving and then a second worm started moving,” Al-Atar says. “They came back alive.” He quickly turned on the video camera and started recording the miracle. When he shared the results with his advisor, Neil Branda of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, he saw a rare smile break out on his face.
Manipulate Cells with Flash of ...
