Chemical tools for the study of complex biological systems

ORGN 452

Barbara Imperiali, imper@mit.edu, Department of Chemistry and Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139
This presentation will discuss the development and application of novel fluorescent chemical probes for studying complex biological systems. Due to the essential signaling roles played by intracellular protein phosphorylation, the focus of recent studies in the group has been on protein kinases as critical targets for probe development. In the area of signal transduction, new approaches including general strategies for the assembly of synthetic and semi-synthetic probes for interrogating protein function have been developed. These probes include unnatural fluorescent amino acids for interrogating protein kinase activities and phosphorylation-dependent protein-protein interactions in addition to methods for the assembly of caged phosphopeptides and proteins for examining phosphorylation-mediated cellular activities.

Ultimately, an arsenal of chemical probes for monitoring protein phosphorylation and chemically caged analogues of key phosphoprotein mediators will contribute to the understanding of the spatial and temporal profiles of protein kinases and phosphoproteins in complex cellular pathways.