Cytoplasmic Surface Revealed!

SPECIAL TO THE CRIMSON--

A team of scientific investigators working for the past three years in the laboratories of Daniel Branton, Professor of Biology and Chairman of the Harvard Biohazards Committee, has successfully devised a method of trapping human cells on glass beads.

The group has taken the pictured commercially available glass beads and treated them chemically so that their surfaces are covered by a positively-charged, artificial protein-like substance. This substance enables the beads to bind with such tenacity that a simple mechanical force is sufficient to rupture the cells.

This new procedure should have tremendous impact on the growing field of membrane research. It has already been useful in the rapid isolation of membrane in mitochondria, HeLa cells and human red blood cells.

Dr. Bruce Jacobson, overseer of the research group, was elated with the outcome of the project. "The cell must communicate with its environment and the membrane is the first thing that perceives the environment," he noted. "This new technique will greatly facilitate basic research on membranes."

But not every researcher is so overwhelmingly optimistic about the project's long-range effects. Doug Kalish, one of the researchers, fears that the ground-breaking work may cause problems of enormous--maybe elephantine--proportions. "There is no limit to the size that we can make these beads. With a large enough bead, even an elephant can be trapped," Kalish warns. "The hazards that these beads may present to the community has yet to be determined."