Cells with an ear for music release insulin
"We will rock you": Researchers around Martin Fussenegger, head of the D-BSSE Biotechnology and Bioengineering group, are developing a gene switch that triggers insulin release in designer cells by playing certain rock and pop songs.
In brief
- For the first time, researchers are using music, including Queen's global hit "We will rock you," to stimulate insulin release from cells.
- The insulin-producing designer cells were equipped with an ion channel of a bacterium that reacts to mechanical stimuli like sound waves.
- Only direct sonication of the cells at the right volume and pitch triggers insulin release within a few minutes.
Diabetes is a condition in which the body produces too little or no insulin. Diabetics thus depend on an external supply of this hormone via injection or pump. Researchers led by Martin Fussenegger from the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at ETH Zurich in Basel, Switzerland want to make the lives of these people easier and are looking for solutions to produce and administer insulin directly in the body.
One such solution the scientists are pursuing is enclosing insulin-producing designer cells in capsules that can be implanted in the body. To be able to control from the outside when and how much insulin the cells release into the blood, researchers have studied and applied different triggers in recent years: light, temperature and electric fields.
Fussenegger and his colleagues have now developed another, novel stimulation method: they use music to trigger the cells to release insulin within minutes. This works especially well with “We Will Rock You,” a global hit by British rock band, Queen.
Read on >> find full-length ETH News.
This is a shortened version of ETH News.
Find the research article published by Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology
Zhao, H, S Xue, M-D Hussherr, P Buchmann, A Palma Teixeira, and M Fussenegger (2023) external pageTuning of cellular insulin release by music for real- time diabetes control. Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 23 August 2023, doi:10.1016/PIIS2213- 8587(23)00153- 5
Learn about the Biotechnology and Bioengineering lab led by Martin Fussenegger.