{"id":3550,"date":"2014-11-24T11:35:15","date_gmt":"2014-11-24T16:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/?p=3550"},"modified":"2014-11-27T09:05:41","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T14:05:41","slug":"playing-by-ear-how-acoustics-could-help-study-proteins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/playing-by-ear-how-acoustics-could-help-study-proteins\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing by EAR &#8211; how acoustics could help study proteins<img src=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/canada_flag_icon_small.gif\">"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3551\" style=\"width: 202px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Conalbumin.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3551\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3551\" src=\"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Conalbumin.gif\" alt=\"This animated .gif shows the vibrating modes of a protein called conalbumin, found in egg whites. A new technique picks up the acoustic signals given off by such vibrations, which can be used to identify proteins and tell whether they\u2019ve been altered by mutation or interactions with drugs.\" width=\"192\" height=\"243\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3551\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This animated .gif shows the vibrating modes of a protein called conalbumin, found in egg whites. A new technique picks up the acoustic signals given off by such vibrations, which can be used to identify proteins and tell whether they\u2019ve been altered by mutation or interactions with drugs.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A new technique called electronic acoustic Raman (EAR) spectroscopy could improve the way we study proteins, which in turn could help fight diseases like cystic fibrosis. The technique involves using a laser to excite small molecules like proteins; when excited they vibrate and give off sound at a specific frequency.<\/p>\n<p>By analysing the sound, researchers can tell which proteins are present or if any of them are altered through mutation or interactions with drugs. Unlike current techniques for studying proteins, EAR doesn\u2019t require dyes or labels, is low cost and can even zoom in on a single molecule.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers have demonstrated proof of concept using nanoparticles and 5 different proteins, all of which showed unique acoustic signals. The technique could help discover new drugs or assist in the study of diseases like cystic fibrosis, which is caused by a mutated protein.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/nphoton\/journal\/vaop\/ncurrent\/full\/nphoton.2014.283.html\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Original research paper<\/span><\/a>\u00a0published by\u00a0<em>Nature Photonics\u00a0<\/em>on\u00a0<span class=\"aBn\" tabindex=\"0\" data-term=\"goog_453723367\"><span class=\"aQJ\"><strong>November 24, 2014<\/strong>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em><strong>Names and affiliations of selected\u00a0authors<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ece.uvic.ca\/%7Ergordon\/contact.html\" target=\"_blank\">Reuven Gordon<\/a><\/span>, University of Victoria, British Columbia<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new technique called electronic acoustic Raman (EAR) spectroscopy could improve the way we study proteins, which in turn could help fight diseases like cystic fibrosis. The technique involves using a laser to excite small molecules like proteins; when excited they vibrate and give off sound at a specific frequency. By analysing the sound, researchers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[113,125,32,909,51,53,2304,2303],"class_list":["post-3550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paper-of-interest","tag-biology","tag-british-columbia","tag-chemistry","tag-genetics","tag-health","tag-medicine","tag-proteins","tag-sound"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Conalbumin.gif","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4DqbN-Vg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3550"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3599,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions\/3599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sciencemediacentre.ca\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}