Sensing in Living Cells: Expressable RNA-based FRET Probes

在过去的几年里，我们对小核糖核酸（rna）在控制细胞内过程中的重要作用的理解有了极大的增长。这个跨学科项目的目标是结合化学和分子生物学，为细胞内小rna添加额外的人工功能：细胞内过程的荧光报告。为此，我们将设计新的小rna，既能对代谢物做出反应，又能结合发光染料（与受体结合后增加荧光的染料）。新的代谢物荧光探针将有助于增加我们对细胞内过程的理解，从而带来直接的基础科学效益和对人类健康的长期影响。博士后科学家还是研究生，本科生和高中生？学校的学生都将接触到多学科方法，并将学习如何开发和优化有用的细胞内试剂。我们将用来演示新型rna探针功能的生物之一是社会性变形虫，Dictyostellium；因此，我们可以制作具有高度视觉吸引力的电影，这些电影将被用来激发参与K-12学生对科学的兴趣，并解释多细胞、进化、寄生、社会行为、利他主义和欺骗的起源等基本原理。

Over the past several years our understanding of the important role that small ribonucleic acids (RNAs) play in controlling intracellular processes has grown tremendously. The goal of this interdisciplinary project, combining chemistry and molecular biology, is to add an additional artificial function to the intracellular small RNAs: the fluorescent reporting of intracellular process. For this purpose, we will engineer new small RNAs that will be both responsive to metabolites and bind light-up dyes (dyes that that increase fluorescence upon binding to the receptor). New fluorescent probes for metabolites would help increase our understanding of intracellular processes, leading to immediate basic science benefits and longer-term impact on human health. A postdoctoral scientist or a graduate student, undergraduates, and high?]school students will all be exposed to the multidisciplinary approach and will learn how to develop and optimize useful intracellular reagents. One of the organisms we will use to demonstrate the function of new RNA-based probes is the social amoebae, Dictyostellium; thus, we may produce highly visually attractive movies that will be used to spark the interest of participating K-12 students in science and to explain basic principles of multicellularity, evolution, parasitism, social behavior, origins of altruism and cheating.