Golden Broccoli Lights Up Cells

Scientists have long struggled with a frustrating limitation when trying to measure what’s happening inside a cell: they had to destroy it first. U Professor of Chemistry Ming Chen Hammond and her team may have solved that problem with the help of a glowing molecule they call Golden Broccoli.

The researchers track glycine—a simple molecule with outsized roles in memory, reflexes, and brain development—using a glowing sensor. When the sensor finds glycine inside a cell, it lights up in two colors. Yellow light shows how much of the sensor is in each cell, while red light reveals glycine levels—together allowing researchers to take precise measurements while cells remain intact and alive. 

The tool could deepen our understanding of how the brain works. The team plans to use the sensor to study astrocytes. Scientists suspect that these cells supply chemical signals to neurons, but they’ve never been able to watch it happen. Golden Broccoli may finally let scientists watch in real time as astrocytes release glycine and influence brain signaling.

“Any questions we have about how the amount of glycine in the cell changes during different cellular processes, or where glycine is located in the cell at different times, can now be answered,” says Madeline Bodin, a doctoral student in Hammond’s lab that led the study.

The quirky name comes from a scientific tradition of naming glowing RNA (ribonucleic acid) sensors after produce—spinach, broccoli, corn, mango—based on the colors they emit. Golden Broccoli is a tweaked version of the original Broccoli RNA, engineered to glow yellow instead of green. The name simply reflects scientists having a bit of fun with tradition.