Carnegie Mellon University

Subhasish K Chakraborty

Alan S Waggoner

Marcel Pierre Bruchez

Mingrui Zhang

Brigitte F Schmidt

Biosensor comprising an activatable acceptor fluorogen linked via a linker to a donor which transfers energy to the fluorogen on detecting an analyte wherein the fluorogen component reacts and a 100 fold increase in intensity results when the fluorogen interacts non-covalently with an activator e.g. fluorogen activator peptide.

Targeted probes of cellular physiology

Tissue slices and whole organisms offer substantial challenges to fluorescence imaging. Autofluorescence and absorption via intrinsic chromophores, such as flavins, melanin, and hemoglobins, confound and degrade output from all fluorescent tags. An 'optical window,' farther red than most autofluorescence sources and in a region of low hemoglobin and water absorbance, lies between 650 and 900 nm. This valley of relative optical clarity is an attractive target for fluorescence-based studies within tissues, intact organs, and living organisms. Novel fluorescent tags were developed herein, based upon a genetically targeted fluorogen activating protein and cognate fluorogenic dye that yields emission with a peak at 733 nm exclusively when complexed as a 'fluoromodule'. This tool improves substantially over previously described far-red/NIR fluorescent proteins in terms of brightness, wavelength, and flexibility by leveraging the flexibility of synthetic chemistry to produce novel chromophores.

Growing community of inventors

Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America

Subhasish K Chakraborty