new agents for the visualization of biochemistry in live cells

蛋白质是令人惊叹的分子机器，对我们所知的生命是必不可少的。经过一个世纪的蛋白质研究，我们现在对蛋白质如何能够执行其广泛的功能有了很好的理解。然而，我们的理解还不够深入，不足以让我们理性地设计具有自然界中没有的功能的新蛋白质结构。因此，当我们想要用蛋白质作为有益于人类的‘工具’时，我们受到大自然提供的东西的限制。幸运的是，大自然一直很慷慨，在现代生活的许多方面，包括家居产品(例如洗衣粉)、医疗诊断(例如用于控制糖尿病的血糖传感器)和生物技术(例如聚合酶链式反应)，蛋白质“工具”现在被认为是理所当然的。他说，正是在这最后一类中，来自水母的绿色荧光蛋白(GFP)找到了广泛的用途。GFP在蛋白质中具有独特的能力，可以在其自身的三维结构中产生可见波长的荧光团，从而能够吸收蓝光并将其重新发射为绿光。在过去的十年里，这一非凡的蛋白质“工具”使生物研究取得了许多令人兴奋的进展，因为通过将GFP基因植入活细胞或组织，人们可以“看到”原本无法检测到的生物结构。我的具体研究兴趣是扩展在基础生物研究中有用的蛋白质的“工具箱”。例如，拥有广泛的荧光蛋白质“颜色”选择是很有用的，这样就可以同时“可视化”多种生物结构。我们还希望为荧光蛋白增加一个动态的新维度，并将它们设计成生物传感器，根据特定的生物事件改变它们的荧光。这种生物传感器的许多潜在应用存在于基础细胞生物学研究领域。然而，这些技术进步也将适用于医学诊断、药物发现以及癌症成像和治疗的先进方法。

Proteins are amazing molecular machines that are essential for Life as we know it. After a century of protein research, we now have a very good understanding of how proteins are able to carry out their vast array of functions. However, our understanding is not deep enough to allow us to rationally design new protein structures with functions not found in Nature. Thus, when we want to use proteins as benign 'tools' to benefit mankind, we are limited to what Nature has provided us. Fortunately, Nature has been generous and protein 'tools' are now taken for granted in many aspects of modern life, including household products (e.g. laundry detergent), medical diagnostics (e.g. blood glucose sensors to control diabetes), and biotechnology (e.g. PCR).     It is in this last category that the green fluorescent protein (GFP) from jellyfish has found widespread utility. GFP has the unique (among proteins) ability to generate a visible wavelength fluorophore within its own 3-dimensional structure and thus can absorb blue light and reemit it as green light. In the past decade, this remarkable protein 'tool' has enabled many exciting advances in biological research because genetically inserting GFP into a living cell or tissue allows one to 'see' biological structures that would otherwise be undetectable.     My specific research interest is in expanding the 'toolkit' of proteins that are useful in basic biological research. For example, it is useful to have a wide selection of 'colors' of fluorescent proteins so that multiple biological structures can be 'visualized' simultaneously. We would also like to add a dynamic new dimension to fluorescent proteins and engineer them to be biosensors that change their fluorescence in response to specific biological events. Many of the potential applications of such biosensors lie in the realm of fundamental cell biology research. However, these technological advances will also be applicable to the areas of medical diagnostics, drug discovery, and advanced approaches for imaging and treatment of cancer.