EurekAlert! -- Researchers at the University of California, San Diego – led by 2008 Nobel-Prize winner Roger Tsien, PhD – have shown that bacterial proteins called phytochromes can be engineered into infrared-fluorescent proteins (IFPs). Because the wavelength of IFPs is able to penetrate tissue, these proteins are suitable for whole-body imaging in small animals. Their findings will be published in the May 8 edition of the journal Science.
