Chemical approaches to improving optical imaging probes
Event details
| Date | 24.09.2012 |
| Hour | 10:15 |
| Speaker | Professor Stephen Miller, University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Optical probes are powerful tools for the study of gene expression, protein interactions, and enzymatic activity. However, live cells and organisms pose special challenges to optical imaging. Most exogenous fluorophores are poorly suited for use in live cells, either because they cannot cross cell membranes, or they tend to accumulate in intracellular organelles. Furthermore, cellular absorption of the excitation light required for fluorescence can result in phototoxicity and high autofluorescence background. Bioluminescence is not subject to these limitations because no excitation light is necessary. Yet light emission from luciferases is fundamentally limited by the photochemistry of the luciferin substrate and its ability to access the luciferase.
Bioluminescent and fluorescent probes that freely access intracellular locations and operate at wavelengths where living tissue is most transparent to light would be optimal for optical imaging. Our lab’s efforts toward these dual goals will be discussed:
1) the design and synthesis of new luciferin substrates that surpass the photochemical and accessibility limitations posed by the native firefly luciferase substrate D-luciferin both in vitro and in vivo, and
2) a chemical strategy to deliver water-soluble sulfonated near-IR fluorophores into the cytoplasm of live cells.
Bioluminescent and fluorescent probes that freely access intracellular locations and operate at wavelengths where living tissue is most transparent to light would be optimal for optical imaging. Our lab’s efforts toward these dual goals will be discussed:
1) the design and synthesis of new luciferin substrates that surpass the photochemical and accessibility limitations posed by the native firefly luciferase substrate D-luciferin both in vitro and in vivo, and
2) a chemical strategy to deliver water-soluble sulfonated near-IR fluorophores into the cytoplasm of live cells.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- Professor Elena Dubikovskaya
Contact
- Professor Elena Dubikovskaya