Labeling proteins with interchangeable fluorophores

摘要

Ulrich von Andrian and colleagues at the CBR Institute for Biomedical Research, Inc.; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Surface Logix, Inc.; and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have introduced a new way to specifically and covalently label a target protein for in vivo imaging. In their method, they embed a small serine esterase, cutinase, into the sequence of the target protein and then covalently label cutinase with several fluorescent analogs of its suicide inhibitor, p-nitrophenyl phosphonate (pNPP).