Premium
Optical probing of neuronal membrane proteins
Author(s) -
isacoff ehud
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.1_supplement.252.2
Subject(s) - function (biology) , protein function , biophysics , nanotechnology , interrogation , computational biology , structural biology , chemistry , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , materials science , gene , biochemistry , history , archaeology
With the explosive advance of structural biology, a major challenge for biology is shifting from identifying the protein players, and defining their individual properties, to developing new ways of determining how they operate coherently in cells. This requires molecularly focused methods for dynamic interrogation and manipulation of protein structure and function. An attractive approach is to use light as both input and output to probe molecular machines in cells. Methods will be described by which small chemical fluorophores and photoswitches can be conjugated to proteins in a site‐directed manner in live cells and organisms and used to monitor the structural rearrangements that underlie functional transitions or to trigger these functional transitions in rapid and reversible manners.