title: Chemical reporters for biological discovery.
abstract: Functional tools are needed to understand complex biological systems. Here we review how chemical reporters in conjunction with bioorthogonal labeling methods can be used to image and retrieve nucleic acids, proteins, glycans, lipids and other metabolites in vitro, in cells as well as in whole organisms. By tagging these biomolecules, researchers can now monitor their dynamics in living systems and discover specific substrates of cellular pathways. These advances in chemical biology are thus providing important tools to characterize biological pathways and are poised to facilitate our understanding of human diseases.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Microbial Pathogenesis, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grammel
authors.forename: Howard C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Hang
mesh_terms: D000475:Alkenes / Q000737:chemistry*; D000480:Alkynes / Q000737:chemistry*; D000818:Animals; D001386:Azides / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000475:Alkenes; D000480:Alkynes; D001386:Azides; D008055:Lipids; D009696:Nucleic Acids; D011134:Polysaccharides; D011506:Proteins