PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

It's the water

Graphene balloon yields unprecedented images of hydrated protein molecules

2014-02-05
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Marcia Goodrich
mlgoodri@mtu.edu
906-487-2343
Michigan Technological University
It's the water Graphene balloon yields unprecedented images of hydrated protein molecules

A graphene water balloon may soon open up new vistas for scientists seeking to understand health and disease at the most fundamental level.

Electron microscopes already provide amazingly clear images of samples just a few nanometers across. But if you want a good look at living tissue, look again.

"You can't put liquid in an electron microscope," says Tolou Shokuhfar, of Michigan Technological University. "So, if you have a hydrated sample—and all living things are hydrated—you have to freeze it, like a blueberry in an ice cube, and cut it into a million thin pieces, so the electrons can pass through. Only then can you image it to see what's going on."

After such treatment, the blueberry isn't what it was, and neither is human tissue. Shokuhfar, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics, wondered if there might be a way to make electron microscopes more friendly to biological samples. That way, you might get a much better view of what's really going on at the sub-cellular level.

So she joined colleagues at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC), and together they found a way. "You don't need to freeze the blueberry, you don't need to slice it up with a diamond knife," she said. "You just put it in the electron microscope, and you can get down and see the atoms."

The trick was to encapsulate the sample so that all the water stayed put while the electrons passed through freely. To do that, the team, including Robert F. Klie, an associate professor of physics and mechanical and industrial engineering at UIC, and UIC graduate student Canhui Wang, turned to graphene.

"Graphene is just a single layer of carbon atoms, and electrons can go through it easily, but water does not," Klie said. "If you put a drop of water on graphene and top it with graphene, it forms this little balloon of water." The graphene is strong enough to hold the water inside, even within the vacuum of an electron microscope.

The team tried their technique on a biochemical that plays a major role in human health: ferritin. "It's a protein that stores and releases iron, which is critical for many body functions, and if ferritin isn't working right, it may be contributing to lots of diseases, including Alzheimer's and cancer," Shokuhfar said.

The team made a microscopic sandwich, with ferritin immersed in water as the filling and graphene as the bread, and sealed the edges. Then, using a scanning transmission electron microscope, they captured a variety of images showing ferritin's atomic structure. In addition, they used a special type of spectroscopy to identify various atomic and electronic structures within the ferritin. Those images showed that the ferritin was releasing iron and pinpointed its specific form.

If the technique were used to compare ferritin taken from diseased tissue with healthy ferritin, it could provide new insights into illness at the molecular level. Those discoveries could lead to new treatments. "I believe this will allow us to identify disease signatures in ferritin and many other proteins," Shokuhfar said.



INFORMATION:



An article on their work, "High-Resolution Electron Microscopy and Spectroscopy of Ferritin in Biocompatible Graphene Liquid Cells and Graphene Sandwiches," was published Feb. 4 in Advanced Materials. Qiao Qiao, formerly a graduate student in Klie's UIC lab and now a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University, is also a coauthor on the study.

The work was funded by Michigan Technological University with additional support from a National Science Foundation grant to UIC, number DMR-0959470. The research was conducted at the University of Illinois-Chicago.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Strange marine mammals of ancient North Pacific revealed

2014-02-05
The pre-Ice Age marine mammal community of the North Pacific formed a strangely eclectic scene, research by a Geology PhD student at New Zealand's University of Otago reveals. Studying hundreds of ...

Study supports 3-D MRI heart imaging to improve treatment of atrial fibrillation

2014-02-05
SALT LAKE CITY—A University of Utah-led study for treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation (A-fib) provides ...

A short stay in darkness may heal hearing woes

2014-02-05
Call it the Ray Charles Effect: a young child who is blind develops a keen ability to hear things that others cannot. Researchers have long ...

Simulated blindness can help revive hearing, researchers find

2014-02-05
Minimizing a person's sight for as little as a week may help improve the brain's ability to process hearing, neuroscientists have found. Hey-Kyoung Lee, an associate professor of neuroscience and researcher ...

The anatomy of an asteroid

2014-02-05
Using very precise ground-based observations, Stephen Lowry (University of Kent, UK) and colleagues have measured the speed at which the near-Earth asteroid (25143) Itokawa spins and how that spin rate is changing over time. They have combined these delicate ...

Policymakers and scientists agree on top research questions

2014-02-05
Natural resource managers, policymakers and their advisers, and scientists ...

Vanadium dioxide research opens door to new, multifunctional spintronic smart sensors

2014-02-05
Research from a team led by North Carolina State University is opening the door to smarter sensors by integrating the smart material vanadium dioxide onto a silicon chip ...

World temperature records available via Google Earth

2014-02-05
Climate researchers at the University of East Anglia have made the world's temperature records available via Google Earth. The Climatic Research Unit Temperature Version 4 (CRUTEM4) land-surface air temperature ...

Time is of the essence

2014-02-05
New findings in mice suggest that merely changing meal times could have a significant effect on the levels of triglycerides in the liver. The results of this Weizmann Institute of Science study, recently published in Cell Metabolism, ...

Researchers discover rare new species of deep-diving whale

2014-02-05
Researchers have identified a new species of mysterious beaked whale based on the study of seven animals stranded on remote tropical islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans over the past ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Thirty-year mystery of dissonance in the “ringing” of black holes explained

Less intensive works best for agricultural soil

Arctic rivers project receives “national champion” designation from frontiers foundation

Computational biology paves the way for new ALS tests

Study offers new hope for babies born with opioid withdrawal syndrome

UT, Volkswagen Group of America celebrate research partnership

New Medicare program could dramatically improve affordability for cancer drugs – if patients enroll

Are ‘zombie’ skin cells harmful or helpful? The answer may be in their shapes

University of Cincinnati Cancer Center presents research at AACR 2025

Head and neck, breast, lung and survivorship studies headline Dana-Farber research at AACR Annual Meeting 2025

AACR: Researchers share promising results from MD Anderson clinical trials

New research explains why our waistlines expand in middle age

Advancements in muon detection: Taishan Antineutrino Observatory's innovative top veto tracker

Chips off the old block

Microvascular decompression combined with nerve combing for atypical trigeminal neuralgia

Cutting the complexity from digital carpentry

Lung immune cell type “quietly” controls inflammation in COVID-19

Fiscal impact of expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity

State and sociodemographic trends in US cigarette smoking with future projections

Young adults drive historic decline in smoking

NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research

Chimpanzee stem cells offer new insights into early embryonic development

This injected protein-like polymer helps tissues heal after a heart attack

FlexTech inaugural issue launches, pioneering interdisciplinary innovation in flexible technology

In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity

Methyl eugenol: potential to inhibit oxidative stress, address related diseases, and its toxicological effects

A vascularized multilayer chip reveals shear stress-induced angiogenesis in diverse fluid conditions

AI helps unravel a cause of Alzheimer's disease and identify a therapeutic candidate

Coalition of Autism Scientists critiques US Department of Health and Human Services Autism Research Initiative

Structure dictates effectiveness, safety in nanomedicine

[Press-News.org] It's the water
Graphene balloon yields unprecedented images of hydrated protein molecules