Summertime beachgoers are all too familiar with the painful reality of a jellyfish sting. But how do the stinging cells of jellyfish and their coral and sea anemone cousins actually work? New research from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research unveils a precise operational model for the stinging organelle of the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis. The study, published online in Nature Communications on June 17, 2022, was led by Ahmet Karabulut, a predoctoral researcher in the lab of Matt Gibson, Ph.D. Their work involved the application of cutting-edge microscopic imaging technologies along with the development of a biophysical model to enable a comprehensive understanding of a mechanism that has remained elusive for over a century. Insights from the work could lead to beneficial applications in medicine, including the development of microscopic therapeutic delivery devices for humans.
Click here for original story, Inside the jellyfish’s sting: Exploring the micro-architecture of a cellular weapon
Source: Phys.org