Experts have the measure of zinc
A NEW way to measure zinc in human cells could help scientists understand more about diseases such as Alzheimer's and diabetes.
Zinc plays a number of vital biological roles but until now it has only been possible to obtain a rough idea of how much of the metal was contained in cells.
The new technique involves a molecular probe that uses fluorescent jellyfish proteins to measure zinc concentrations accurately. Coloured patches seen under a microscope reveal where the zinc lies.
Professor Guy Rutter, one of the researchers from Imperial College London, said: "There has been relatively little biological work done on zinc compared to other metals partly because we didn't have the tools to measure it accurately before now."
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