Video Of The Day: Harvard Researchers Give Living Cells Tiny Laser Beams

Researchers from Harvard University Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital have created fully functional lasers that work within a living cell.

Cells injected with lasers. (Images via Matjaž Humar and Seok Hyun Yun)
Cells injected with lasers. (Images via Matjaž Humar and Seok Hyun Yun)

The team’s research is reinventing lasers for use in medical applications and opening up doors for better exploration inside of living cells and the body as a whole. Using microlasers can help medical researchers to acquire more accurate images of cells within in the body and even one day help them to function.

In the study, the authors formed the living lasers by using oil droplets, natural lipids and polysterene beads.For a full explanation of how they armed living cells with microscopic lasers, watch the video below.

Authors Matjaž Humar and  Seok Hyun Yun published their findings in this week’s Nature Photonics

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