[MOS] MOS May 10, 2005

[Zina Queen]

Seminar on
Modern Optics and Spectroscopy

Alice Ting, MIT

Fluorescent reporters of protein trafficking and function

May 10, 2005
12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Abstract

Our research program focuses on the development of new methodology 
for probing the biochemistry of living cells. We will describe a 
project in which we have used the bacterial enzyme biotin ligase to 
develop new site-specific protein labeling methodology. This 
methodology, which allows introduction of probes of any structure 
onto a 15-amino acid acceptor peptide sequence, should provide a much 
less invasive alternative to GFP (which is 238 amino acids), as well 
as allow access to non-fluorescence applications such as MRI, 
electron microscopy, EPR, and photocrosslinking, for which GFP is 
useless. We will also describe our efforts to develop new families of 
FRET-type reporters for imaging post-translational modification 
events in live cells.
In addition to methodology development, our lab has become 
increasingly interested in neuroscience problems. For instance, we 
have applied the site-specific protein labeling methodology described 
above to image the trafficking behavior of AMPA receptors on the 
surface of hippocampal neurons and obtained interesting preliminary 
data showing subunit-dependent trafficking in response to induction 
of long-term potentiation.
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