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After
the 1950s, the SPF gave rise to many new
uses for fluorescence in medical research.
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American
doctors and scientists began investigating the
uses of fluorescence in medicine in the 1920s
and 1930s. In the 1940s, then, when working with
antimalarial drugs, the Goldwater group already
knew that Atabrine and other drugs fluoresced
at certain ultraviolet
wavelengths just outside the visible range.
Indeed,
other organic, or carbon-containing, compounds
also fluoresce when irradiated by a light of the
correct wavelength. After the 1950s, the SPF gave
rise to many new uses for fluorescence in medical
research. Today, fluorescence microscopes use
sensitive electronic cameras to observe directly
in three dimensions how cells function. Recently,
advances in pulsed lasers have provided selective
excitation of fluorescence in many tiny regions
inside living cells and the ability to detect
events lasting less than a trillionth of a second
in proteins. Hundreds of new fluorescent dyes
are available to light up specific targets, and
fluorescent-activated cell sorters can be used
to separate white blood cells from other cells
found in blood. Using fluorescence might yield
surprising new results in the future of medicine.
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