New method uses light to bend DNA strands for better disease understanding

A Princeton research team has developed a groundbreaking tool to study chromosomes by physically moving DNA strands around.

Having found and turned a key, they can access the deepest mechanisms of gene expression to find new solutions to diseases such as cancer.

According to the study, they first had to solve a longstanding scientific mystery by identifying that chromosomes behave like elastic and liquid. They leveraged this finding to manipulate DNA physically, bending strands back to probe the genome.

Building on previous research with condensates, a class of membrane-less organelles that carry out functions within the cell and then disperse, the team figured out a way to bioengineer condensates that respond to laser light. This enables them to pull back “the curtains,” the strands of DNA, as the study explains.

Now, researchers can use these liquid-like forms of matter to manipulate the structure of the DNA to assess how that might change gene expression.

“What’s happening here is truly incredible,” said Cliff Brangwynne, director of Princeton’s Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute and study lead . “Basically, we’ve turned droplets into little fingers that pluck on the genomic strings within living cells.”

Princeton researchers have created a new tool to understand gene expression like never before.

Getting to the deepest level of a cell

Scientists are studying gene expression to increasingly new depths, which holds promise for locating disease before it starts or the precise mechanism that’s causing dysfunction in the first place.

However, Princeton researchers have figured out a way to play with DNA’s very structure. They can even pull a couple of strands together until they touch by directing condensation to specific spots on the DNA strands.

Using laser light, principally, they could “direct their movement quickly and precisely via surface tension-mediated forces also known as capillary forces.”

“We haven’t been able to have this precise control over nuclear organization on such quick timescales before,” Brangwynne said in the Princeton press release . This tool provides a way to investigate gene expression in new, stunning detail and the material science of gene expression.

Could scientists play our DNA like physical symphonies?

Whereas this function may happen randomly, with this tool, they can control the strands and observe how genes react, thereby studying the physical material of chromosomes , a structure of DNA of thread-like strands tightly coiled around millions of proteins in the nucleus of every cell.

They compare the new tool to CRISPR technology, except it doesn’t edit the gene but opens up a new way to understand and possibly treat certain classes of disease, specifically related to protein imbalances, such as cancer.

With this genome -probing technology, they can “build a map of what’s going on…and better understand when things are disorganized, like in cancer,” as per postdoctoral scholar Amy R. Strom .

What they don’t know yet, and what might be the next phase in their research, is whether or not they can “control the amount of expression by repositioning the gene.” In a groundbreaking approach that seems almost sci-fi, researchers may soon be able to manipulate the material of genes to address dysfunctions at their very core.

By manipulating DNA strands with liquid droplets, researchers could transform our genetic functions, correct inherent flaws, and create a more harmonious biological composition.

Their research was published in the journal Cell .