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Credit: Rhoda Baer
The detection and imaging of protein-protein interactions in live cells just got a lot more colorful, researchers have reported in Nature Methods.
The team created a technique that converts biochemical processes into color changes that are easily visualized.
The group said this provides a new tool scientists can use to answer questions about fundamental mechanisms in cell biology, aid the discovery of novel therapeutics, and more.
Robert E. Campbell, PhD, of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and his colleagues conducted this research.
They developed the technique, dubbed FPX, that employs genetically encoded fluorescent proteins to image dynamic biochemical events in live cells and tissues. The FPX method converts a change in protein-protein interactions into a dramatic green to red (or vice versa) color change that is immediately visible.
“Strategies for converting fluorescent proteins into active biosensors of intracellular biochemistry are few in number and technically challenging,” Dr Campbell said. “With this development, we can immediately image activity happening at the cellular level, offering an alternative to existing methods for detecting and imaging of protein-protein interactions in live cells.”
The FPX method is based on green and red dimerization-dependent fluorescent proteins (ddFPs) that Dr Campbell and his colleagues first reported in 2012.
Yidan Ding, PhD, a research assistant at the University of Alberta and the primary contributor to this work, found she could combine the use of both green and red ddFPs in single cells, such that the proteins could be green or red, but not both, at the same time.
By introducing modified versions of the proteins into live cells, and taking advantage of the fact that green and red fluorescence are mutually exclusive, Dr Ding was able to construct a wide variety of biosensors that underwent dramatic changes in fluorescence in response to biochemical processes of interest.
By adding this new dimension to fluorescent proteins and engineering them to be biosensors that change their color in response to specific biological events, Drs Ding and Campbell and their colleagues have provided a tool for researchers to immediately pinpoint a major change at the cellular level.
This minimizes the need for extensive biosensor optimization and provides a versatile new approach to building the next generation of biosensors.
“This allows for a wide scope of applications,” Dr Campbell said. “It will be immediately relevant to many areas of fundamental cell biology research and practical applications such as drug discovery. Ultimately, it will help researchers achieve breakthroughs in a wide variety of areas in the life sciences, such as neuroscience, diabetes, and cancer.”
Dr Campbell has a patent pending on the technology. 
Credit: Rhoda Baer
The detection and imaging of protein-protein interactions in live cells just got a lot more colorful, researchers have reported in Nature Methods.
The team created a technique that converts biochemical processes into color changes that are easily visualized.
The group said this provides a new tool scientists can use to answer questions about fundamental mechanisms in cell biology, aid the discovery of novel therapeutics, and more.
Robert E. Campbell, PhD, of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and his colleagues conducted this research.
They developed the technique, dubbed FPX, that employs genetically encoded fluorescent proteins to image dynamic biochemical events in live cells and tissues. The FPX method converts a change in protein-protein interactions into a dramatic green to red (or vice versa) color change that is immediately visible.
“Strategies for converting fluorescent proteins into active biosensors of intracellular biochemistry are few in number and technically challenging,” Dr Campbell said. “With this development, we can immediately image activity happening at the cellular level, offering an alternative to existing methods for detecting and imaging of protein-protein interactions in live cells.”
The FPX method is based on green and red dimerization-dependent fluorescent proteins (ddFPs) that Dr Campbell and his colleagues first reported in 2012.
Yidan Ding, PhD, a research assistant at the University of Alberta and the primary contributor to this work, found she could combine the use of both green and red ddFPs in single cells, such that the proteins could be green or red, but not both, at the same time.
By introducing modified versions of the proteins into live cells, and taking advantage of the fact that green and red fluorescence are mutually exclusive, Dr Ding was able to construct a wide variety of biosensors that underwent dramatic changes in fluorescence in response to biochemical processes of interest.
By adding this new dimension to fluorescent proteins and engineering them to be biosensors that change their color in response to specific biological events, Drs Ding and Campbell and their colleagues have provided a tool for researchers to immediately pinpoint a major change at the cellular level.
This minimizes the need for extensive biosensor optimization and provides a versatile new approach to building the next generation of biosensors.
“This allows for a wide scope of applications,” Dr Campbell said. “It will be immediately relevant to many areas of fundamental cell biology research and practical applications such as drug discovery. Ultimately, it will help researchers achieve breakthroughs in a wide variety of areas in the life sciences, such as neuroscience, diabetes, and cancer.”
Dr Campbell has a patent pending on the technology.
Credit: Rhoda Baer
The detection and imaging of protein-protein interactions in live cells just got a lot more colorful, researchers have reported in Nature Methods.
The team created a technique that converts biochemical processes into color changes that are easily visualized.
The group said this provides a new tool scientists can use to answer questions about fundamental mechanisms in cell biology, aid the discovery of novel therapeutics, and more.
Robert E. Campbell, PhD, of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and his colleagues conducted this research.
They developed the technique, dubbed FPX, that employs genetically encoded fluorescent proteins to image dynamic biochemical events in live cells and tissues. The FPX method converts a change in protein-protein interactions into a dramatic green to red (or vice versa) color change that is immediately visible.
“Strategies for converting fluorescent proteins into active biosensors of intracellular biochemistry are few in number and technically challenging,” Dr Campbell said. “With this development, we can immediately image activity happening at the cellular level, offering an alternative to existing methods for detecting and imaging of protein-protein interactions in live cells.”
The FPX method is based on green and red dimerization-dependent fluorescent proteins (ddFPs) that Dr Campbell and his colleagues first reported in 2012.
Yidan Ding, PhD, a research assistant at the University of Alberta and the primary contributor to this work, found she could combine the use of both green and red ddFPs in single cells, such that the proteins could be green or red, but not both, at the same time.
By introducing modified versions of the proteins into live cells, and taking advantage of the fact that green and red fluorescence are mutually exclusive, Dr Ding was able to construct a wide variety of biosensors that underwent dramatic changes in fluorescence in response to biochemical processes of interest.
By adding this new dimension to fluorescent proteins and engineering them to be biosensors that change their color in response to specific biological events, Drs Ding and Campbell and their colleagues have provided a tool for researchers to immediately pinpoint a major change at the cellular level.
This minimizes the need for extensive biosensor optimization and provides a versatile new approach to building the next generation of biosensors.
“This allows for a wide scope of applications,” Dr Campbell said. “It will be immediately relevant to many areas of fundamental cell biology research and practical applications such as drug discovery. Ultimately, it will help researchers achieve breakthroughs in a wide variety of areas in the life sciences, such as neuroscience, diabetes, and cancer.”
Dr Campbell has a patent pending on the technology.