title: A designed protein for the specific and covalent heteroconjugation of biomolecules.
abstract: Bioconjugations often rely on adaptor molecules to cross-link different biomolecules. In this work, we introduce the molecular adaptor covalin, which is a protein chimera of two self-labeling proteins with nonoverlapping substrate specificity. Covalin permits a selective and covalent heteroconjugation of biomolecules displaying appropriate functional groups. Examples for the use of covalin include the specific heteroconjugation of a reporter enzyme to an antibody and of molecular probes to the surface of living cells. The efficiency and specificity of covalin-based bioconjugations together with the availability of a large variety of substrates create immediate and ubiquitous applications for covalin in bioconjugate chemistry.
authors.affiliation: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chidley
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mosiewicz
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Johnsson