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Oct 4, 2018

Fluorescent molecule could shed light on the inner workings of the cellular environment

Posted by in categories: biological, genetics

A fluorescent molecule whose luminosity depends upon how fast it can rotate is helping researchers measure how viscous the fluid is inside different parts of a cell.

“There’s a lot of interest in the biophysical field in developing that can be used to characterize the environment inside a cell or any kind of biological compartment,” says Peter Bond, from A*STAR’s Bioinformatics Institute.

Researchers from the United Kingdom and Singapore—including A*STAR scientists such as Bond’s team who led the computational arm of the project—have modeled, developed and tested a molecule comprising two parts; a genetic probe designed to home in on particular proteins, so it can be directed to wherever in a cell that is found; and a molecular rotor—a fluorescent molecule whose fluorescence lasts longer, the slower it spins. A*STAR researchers simulated how this molecule would perform in different microenvironments at scales of millionths or even billionths of a meter.

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