title: Building and breeding molecules to spy on cells and tumors.
abstract: Imaging of biochemical processes in living cells and organisms is essential for understanding how genes and gene products work together in space and time and in health and disease. Such imaging depends crucially on indicator molecules designed to maximize sensitivity and specificity. These molecules can be entirely synthetic, entirely genetically encoded macromolecules, or hybrid combinations, each approach having its own pros and cons. Recent examples from the author's laboratory include peptides whose uptake into cells is triggered by proteases typical of tumors, monomeric red fluorescent proteins and biarsenical-tetracysteine systems for determining the age and electron-microscopic location of proteins.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, University of California, San Diego, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 310 George Palade Laboratories 0647, La Jolla, CA 92093-0647, USA. rtsien@ucsd.edu
authors.forename: Roger Y
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Tsien
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010455:Peptides / Q000032:analysis; D021381:Protein Transport
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D010455:Peptides